Way up the Mountain

For the past three years, I have driven by Kennesaw Mountain countless times. I even lived right at the base of the mountain for a while. Surprisingly enough, I had never been up there. The other day, it finally happened. My boyfriend and I decided it would be a good day to hike uphill. I had no idea how tiring this trek was going to be. I also made the mistake of smoking my last cigarette before we started off, something I really shouldn’t be doing before hiking. Either way, we made our way up the trail. These pictures are again, not the best. It was so miserably hot and I was so tired from the uphill movement that, I will admit, I got rather lazy.

This picture is from the beginning of our hike. About five minutes after we began our way up the trail I looked up and just thought it looked beautiful. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the way the forest was lighting up made everything look so green and lush. I really liked the contrast of the rock in relation to the almost straight line of trees behind it. This just looked so inviting that I had to attempt to capture the invitation to the mountain.


After about another thirty-minute walk we found ourselves taking breaks. We would sit for a while, enjoy the view from the mountain’s edge, and then press on. When we were getting close to what I thought was the top I was searching for a shot of something. I kept looking off into the forest when my eye caught this amazing looking mushroom. Mushrooms in general gross me out, I cannot eat any kind of mushroom prepared in any way, but I do like the way they look. Maybe this stems from a love of “Super Mario Bros.” as a child. Either way, I thought this mushroom with curtains looked interesting and lonely. It seemed to be calling for me to take a picture of it. This is what I got.


I got my shot and we kept going. Brian kept promising me that we were almost there. We got to a clearing at the top, which I assumed was our destination, and took a couple pictures of the city through the haze. It was too difficult to get a good shot of the city from up there though.

I thought we were done and ready to start our descent, but Brian informed me that we were not at the top. We headed up some stairs and a shorter path. Along the way were old war cannons and war memorabilia. It was rather interesting, but nothing really photo worthy. We finally reached the actual top of the mountain. It was beautiful up there, but it was impossible to see anything. Atlanta was too hazy from smog and the trees covered the rest. I finally decided on a picture of these rocks. I just found that the colors looked gorgeous in the sunlight. Almost like they were sparkling. I know, it’s not the greatest picture, but you get what I was going for.


I really enjoyed the hike, although it was incredibly tiring. I especially enjoyed the way back down. Down is always so much easier than up, I don’t care what anyone says.