Arabia Mountain

This week my grandparents visited me as they were passing through Georgia on their way up to the mountains to get in a little fall color and scenery not easily found in Florida.

Eschewing the more tourist route of Stone Mountain, we decided to head about 30 minutes southwest of the city to the Arabia Mountain National Historic Area. The historic area consists of several natural and historical points of interest near Lithonia that include a Monastery, mill ruins, and more than a few historic farms, houses and homesteads, amongst other things, all connected by a series of Atlanta's PATH bike, skate and walking friendly trails.

We ended up at the Davidson-Arabia Nature Preserve and walked up the yellow trail to Arabia Lake.

We decided to bring my little nugget, Max along with us and since it was cool and October, he decided it was the perfect occasion to wear his glow in the dark skeleton outfit for our romp in the woods.

Since the mountain is made up of granite, it's not too much of a surprise that it was once home to a few different quarries whose presence can still be seen in areas that have been flattened and scraped out for their rock.

 Max wanted to climb over and investigate.

 As we walked further along the trail and deeper into the forest we started to wonder when we were going to actually see this lake that the trail sign kept advertising to us....

...And then we saw water and a slightly flooded part of the trail and new we must be getting close, so on we went!

 As we continued along the trail, and as we got closer to the lake we saw more leftovers from the mountains quarry days and saw a couple of the small granite pools that the mountain is known for.

 After a pleasant walk we eventually made it to the lake. It was clear and beautiful and tranquil, looking exactly how you would imagine a mountain lake would look in the middle of the forest with beaches made of granite and clover growing on the edge of the water. And once again it showed the remnants of the mountain's former quarry operation.

 After a bit of a rest on the rocks overlooking the lake we headed back up the trail towards the trail head.

 Once we made it back to the car we decided we wanted to try and locate one of the historic farms listed as part of the historic area but were not successful in finding it so instead we parked and headed a short ways down one of the paved wildflower lined PATH trails.

 Not too far down the trail we decided we were all hiked out and that it was probably time to turn around head back and call it a day.