The tall, garish, red lettered sign high above Battlefield Parkway that reads “Battlefield Burgers” restaurant, stands in stark contrast to the marble Georgia Memorial which rises remorsefully in an empty field just a few miles south. One identifies a bustling commercial zone along a six-lane highway, expanding with new construction and stores as quickly as commerce will allow, the other a somber, pastoral meadow crisscrossed with old, split rail fences, rimmed with cannons, that will remain forever unchanged.
The
Chickamauga battlefield where over 4000 men lost their lives is a
somber reminder of our bloody Civil War. It is less than an hours
drive from Cloudland Canyon State Park even with the roundabout route
we took along the Lookout Mountain Scenic Parkway, which really isn't
much of a parkway. It is, however, scenic, even if at only one
location. The parkway offers one great vista of the valley west of
Lookout Mountain. There are no signs or guardrails at the pull-off.
No indication anywhere of the magnificent view below. We just
happened to see the break in the trees and pulled off the road to
take a look.
After
following our GPS instructions through the quaint, and obviously
well-off college town of Lookout Mountain, we descended down the
other side of the mountain and into the Battleground Memorial Park by
way of local Lytle Road, not the main entrance most people see when
visiting the park. It was rather like coming in the back door. After
driving through the battlefield and photographing cannons and
monuments, we headed for the visitor center for more information. The
huge, well maintained battleground is part of the Chickamauga and
Chattanooga National Military Park, administered by the National Park
Service, and lies near the foot of Lookout Mountain.
The
visitor center has battle displays and dioramas, photographs, a gift
shop, and a theater where they show a well done video about the
famous battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. The center also houses
the famous Fuller Gun Collection, a marvelous, well showcased
collection of shoulder arms.
The
city just outside the park, Fort Oglethorpe, offers all the amenities
and restaurants of any modern suburban American town. The new,
clustered retail areas all look the same to me. I can’t tell
Asheville from Oglethorpe from Ocala. They all have the same stores
with their familiar logos sticking high in the air and the
accompanying traffic trying to figure out which entrance to use. We
are so accustomed to individual corporate images we can tell an
establishment by looking at the building. We don’t even need to
look at the signs to know which store is which.
We
stocked up at Walmart, Home Depot, Aldi, and Advance Auto Parts, in
that order, before heading back to campground to have a late lunch
and clean up before the next round of rain storms.
There
is so much more to see within a short drive from Cloudland Canyon
State Park, from historical places to mountain vistas and isolated
waterfalls. We have an extended stay here, and I think we are going
to be busy.
Next: When it all goes right - Shangri-la, at:
http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2017/08/shangri-la.html
George
Next: When it all goes right - Shangri-la, at:
http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2017/08/shangri-la.html
George
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