Our hike at Fort Mountain!

Two weeks ago, Friday, we had a great day spending time and hiking with our friend Rocco from To Dog With Love!

We met at Ellijay for a nice 30 minute drive through the Cohutta Wilderness to Fort Mountain, as it's a great place to take in the amazing fall color views here in North Georgia.

After a day or so of rain the days before, the skies cleared on Friday and made way for a perfect fall day hiking. So we all jumped in the car, met up, drove over and and wow, even the views on the way to Fort Mountain were spectacular!

We arrived at the park entrance and knew immediately that we were in for some pawsome hiking. So we gathered our hiking gear, got our cameras and treats, and headed off from the entrance of the park.

At Fort Mountain you can hike miles of trails, and see some very interesting sites, and the views are outstanding! We started out on the Stone Wall Trail and headed up the mountain. We all were very excited about getting out in the great outdoors.

We made a few quick sniff stops to check out some interesting things, including this rock that was split and the moss had taken over the crack. How symmetrical!

We saw lots of mountain laurel, even some that was still blooming!

At the top of this trail is the Stone Tower. Towers like this are built on high vistas by the Conservation Corp to watch for forest fires.

Gracie and I took a break in the doorway of the tower.

A little further we came to the famous stone wall at Fort Mountain.  The mysterious 855-foot-long wall is thought to have been built by early Indians as fortification against more hostile Indians or for ancient ceremonies.

After the stone wall, we headed up the other direction of the trail loop to the West Overlook. We were pretty excited because we heard you could see several states from this location on a clear day. But what did we find? Stairs, with grates; aka Gracie's nemesis and one of the many fears that Gracie still has. 

The sad thing is this is the one fear that Mum has not been able to help Gracie get over, yet. So we hung back while Rocco's Mum carried him down to the overlook. They got some great pics, but sadly Mum couldn't carry us way down and back up all of those steps. I'm not afraid of the grates, but there was no way Mum was going to let me walk on them with my little feet. Gracie says, 'nope, nope, not stepping on that Mum!'

So we waited for Rocco and his Mum and saw a great rock ledge. That's where Mum got this pawsome pic of me, surveying the land and taking in the vista!

On the way back down we stopped to awe at nature. Here's a huge rock that had lots of ferns, moss and fungi growing on it.

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We saw lots and lots of huge rock formations. The sun was low in the sky and threw lots of shadows.

Then we got back in the car to head to the other side of the park to take in the Big Rock Trail, where we heard there are some pawsome falls. We came up on the first falls, but they were dry. Even though we've had a ton of rain this year, it's been dry the past month. Gracie and I are ready to head further up the mountain!  

The trails are marked by colored strips, we're following the yellow trail!

This trail had not had much sun and the leaves made it a bit slippery so we took our time. We turned the corner and wow, the view! The photo just doesn't do it justice.

A litter further up we found falls that were running! We stopped to enjoy the cool water, get a little sip in the falls pool before heading back down the trail as it was starting to get real late.

Before we got in the car to head down the mountain, we got a nice little pic of the three of us!!!

But the day wasn't over! We drove down the mountain and stopped for some pawsome views!

These two photos courtesy of To Dog With Love.

Then as we drove we saw this cow that had gotten out of it's fence and was getting too close to the mountain road with lots of drop offs. So Mum pulled over and talked to the little one. Mum got closer and she wanted to get back in her fence. So Mum coaxed her and suddenly she bolted and broke right through her electric fence! Safe and sound now, so we moved on. Over the years Mum has rescued lots of animals from roads....big snapping turtles and armadillos in Texas; sheep and pigs in Indiana, and more.

Since it was dinner time, Mum fed us our kibble, then we all headed into Blue Ridge to find a great place for the Mums to eat. They left us in the car as they went into a restaurant. Then after, we were able to take a nice walk around the little mountain tourist town. We saw the scenic railway....it was dark so we are sharing this photo from their website. Sadly dogs are not allowed on the train, although much of Blue Ridge is very, very dog friendly!

Then we walked around town, window shopping and planning our next trip up here where we can all eat outside. Here's a great photo from the Blue Ridge Facebook page showing Blue Ridge Downtown during the day where we walked.

Then we stopped at an outdoor eating/libation place and listened to the music! The musician reminded Mum of Leon Russell, remember him?

What a fun, fun day!!!! We didn't get home until midnight and we're already thinking about our next hike!