Atlanta - Things to Do - Stone Mountain

Just half an hour's drive east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain State Park (park daily 6ammidnight; attractions daily spring & summer 10am9pm, rest of year 10am5pm; $6 per vehicle) centers around a huge dome of granite with a five-mile circumference. You can climb it in around 45 minutes, or take a cable car to the top, and there are various train rides and so on, but most visitors come to see the massive 90ft by 190ft relief of Confederates Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Work on the colossal sculpture was started in 1924 by Gutzon Borglum, who went on to carve Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, but was not completed until 1970. Concessions and giftshops down below supply endless souvenir kitsch, and the nightly lasershow in summer culminates with Elvis's gut-wrenching rendition of Dixie (9.30pm; free with entrance to park).