Largest exposed granite, Georgia's Little Grand Canyon, biggest blackwater swamp
Three landmarks of Georgia's interior geography, in one weekend chain. KPDK DeKalb-Peachtree is fifteen miles from Stone Mountain, a bare granite monadnock rising 825 feet, its north face carrying the largest high-relief sculpture in the world: a Confederate carving covering three acres, begun by Gutzon Borglum before he quit in a feud and left for Mount Rushmore, abandoned for decades, and not finished until 1972. Southwest to KCSG Columbus for Providence Canyon, the Little Grand Canyon of Georgia, a 150-foot maze of pink and orange spires carved entirely by erosion from 1820s cotton farming; no canyon existed there before settlement. Southeast to KAYS Waycross, gateway to the Okefenokee, the largest blackwater swamp in North America: 438,000 acres of cypress, alligators, and water the color of strong tea from tannin-leaching peat. Granite, accidental canyon, ancient swamp: Georgia is older and stranger than the highway makes it look.