Camping at Fort Mountain State Park

It had been a long time since we went camping and Cheryl was really wanting to go. Since my tent (which we used last time) is a bit small for her queen-sized air mattress and too short to stand up in, we decided to get a new tent. Cheryl decided upon a mammoth 15'x10' tent. A 10'x10' would probably have been enough -- certainly 12'x12' would have been since we "car camp" and therefore don't need to put everything in the tent, but we couldn't find one we liked at that size, so we bought a Columbia "Cougar Flats" tent. What a nice tent. It is a two-room tent with a ton of ventilation.

Next was the "where?" factor. We hadn't been to Fort Mountain State Park yet, and it has a lot of camping spots as well as about 16 miles of hiking trails, so that's where we went.

The park is very nice. The campground is very well kept and the bathrooms and showers were very clean, and the trails were quite nice. Our only complaint is that at night you can hear a train blowing its whistle at least hourly, even though the tracks are probably 15-20 miles away! (You're up really high at the campground.) For that one reason, we probably won't camp there again...plus it's nice to explore new places anyway.

	Cheryl as we're starting to set up for breakfast the first morning
	Our new tent.
	Car, Cheryl & Tent.
	Me, holding up a tree....or maybe it's holding me up. It was early.
	Me and our mammoth tent.
	One of our MANY morning alarm clocks -- a goldfinch. Actually one of the louder birds was a Nuthatch, but they stayed too high to get a picture of.
	A creek one of the trails went along for part of its length.
	Hmmmm. I don't remember exactly where this was. I think it was off of the "Big Rock" trail.
	Orchids grow wild in Georgia?
	Some other flower.
	There were tons of flutterby all over the place. These, monarchs and others. This one we the only one polite enough to rest where I could get a picture of it. "Flutterby" you ask? Well, that's what they do, isn't it? Flutter by! I can't help but wonder of butterflies were named by a dyslexic person. ;-)
	Our first visitor to our tent. I'm not sure what it is, but aren't its antennae a bit disproportionately large for its body?
	The view at the "Cool Springs" overlook. No, we didn't see any springs.
	Another overlook near the "stone tower" (which I didn't photograph). This is looking west, and the town in the distance (where the train goes through) is Chattsworth.
	A story about the area and the stone "fort wall" that is there and which the park is named after.
	The "fort wall". I wouldn't call it a fort by any stretch of the imagination.....an New Englander would probably just call it a stone fence. ;-)
	A snake, hanging out in a tree.
	Cheryl, our last night there.