I grew up near Atlanta and my four kids have never been back here, so we enjoyed showing them some of my favorite places in the area.

We visited Stone Mountain while we stayed with my parents before PCSing to Germany.

It sure is different than the last time I was there.

We had been studying The Civil War and this was a nice way to finish our lessons.

Stone Mountain is a great field trip for history, geology, botany, and family fun.

We ended up purchasing passes for 2 adults and 3 kids. Alex was free.

Adventure Passes are $26.95 for adults and $20.95 for kids.

The Adventure Passes include: Summit Skyride, Scenic Railroad, 4-D Theater, SkyHike®, Camp Highland Outpost, Geyser Towers®, The Great Barn®, Great Locomotive Chase Adventure Golf, Historic Square, and Discovering Stone Mountain Museum (and other seasonal events).

We really just wanted to do the Summit Skyride and Scenic Railroad but the passes seemed like a better deal after we studied the grid in the ticket office.

Who doesn’t love a train ride?

Since it was included in the ticket, we played a round of Great Locomotive Chase Adventure Golf.

Then we had a frugal picnic lunch with sandwiches, fruit, and juice in the parking lot.

We took the Aerial Tramway to the top of the mountain.

It was windy!

Tori loves rocks.

Stone Mountain granite is 60% feldspar, 28% quartz, 11% muscovite mica, and 1% biotite mica.

The kids loved seeing all the cool plants. Great for botany studies.

Liz loved the SkyHike® and the kids loved The Great Barn®.

SkyHike is a ropes course and Liz did amazingly well.

The Great Barn is an indoor playground with slides, rope climby things, and balls.

The idea is to pretend you’re farming, but we just liked to shoot each other.

It was a fun day for all of us.

Stone Mountain Park is about 30 minutes from downtown Atlanta and 45 minutes from McDonough.

Daily parking is $15.

Adventures Passes are $26.95 (plus tax)for adults and $20.95 (plus tax) for kids.

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