Stone Mountain offers recreation, education

Dating back to the 1970s, Stone Mountain State Park has offered education programs for visitors in addition to the numerous outdoor activities.

Park Ranger Michael Wood said the goal behind educational programs in the park is to educate the public about various aspects of cultural history, geology, and ecology within the park in order to foster a sense of stewardship between the park and park visitors.

Beginner fly fishing to the geology of the mountain itself are just a few of the most popular educational programs offered by Park Rangers at Stone Mountain.

Wood leads the beginning fly fishing program which teaches participants the skills needed to cast, tie fishing knots, and learn fishing strategy while engaged in actual fishing opportunities at no cost to participants.

Stream sampling or stream safari is another popular park program in which visitors take part in sampling the East Prong of the Roaring River for macroinvertebrates to highlight what fish eat and to determine water quality.

In the fall the park even offered some Halloween-themed programs including Camp or Treat where campers decorated their campsites for the holiday and a panel of judges awarded prizes to campers with the best decorations.

A geology program that highlights the theory behind how Stone Mountain was formed and how weathering and erosion have shaped the 600 foot granite dome that can be seen today is yet another popular program at the park.

Many State Parks saw huge increases in visitors in recent years as more people were seeking outdoor activities amid the pandemic.

“With a huge thanks to our Administrative Specialist at the park, Shannon Brewer, who analyzed our visitation numbers from previous years, I can report that the park saw a twenty-two percent increase in visitation from 2019 to 2020 during the pandemic,” Wood said. “In fact, 2020 set a record in visitation with 499, 862 visitors despite the park being closed from March 23, 2020 to May 8, 2020. The park was often forced to temporarily close on the weekends once the park re-opened in May due to parking areas filling to maximum capacity. The park would then re-open to additional visitors once additional parking became available. The park saw a slight decline in 2021 as beaches and other recreational areas were re-opened with total visitation being 453, 516 visitors.”

Even as winter approached, the park continued to see plenty of visitors coming to enjoy outdoor recreation.

“For the month of December 2021, the park saw a ten percent increase in visitation over the visitation that we had in December 2019 before the pandemic. In fact, just in the month of December 2021, the park had 22,080 visitors. Part of this increase can be attributed to milder temperatures than what we have seen in the month of December in the past,” said Wood.

On Saturday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. rangers will host an educational program on plant health care, where visitors can learn about developing and maintaining healthy plants by building resistance to environmental stressors and pests.

In addition to its educational programming, Stone Mountain State Park provides plenty of opportunities for hiking, fishing, climbing and camping. The park is home to over 18 miles of hiking trails. The most popular trail continues to be the Stone Mountain Loop trail with scenic views of Stone Mountain and Stone Mountain Falls, the parks largest waterfall at over 200 feet tall, Wood said.

Another popular activity within the park is trout fishing. The park is home to over 20 miles of designated trout waters with the most popular section being the Delayed Harvest section of the East Prong Roaring River in which the streams are stocked with brook, rainbow, and brown trout.

Camping is also very popular as the campground is open to park guests everyday except for Christmas Day. In 2021, the park saw a total of 23,466 campers.

Finally, rock climbing is another major attraction with over 80 different routes available on the mountain. Rock climbing saw a forty-five percent increase from 2020 to 2021 with a total of 863 climbers in 2021.