You really can't call yourself a card-carrying Southerner without knowing about Rock City. The "See Rock City" barns and birdhouses scattered across the South have touted the boulder garden atop Georgia's piece of Lookout Mountain since the 1930s.
Even though only 70 of the original 900 painted barns exist these days, Rock City Gardens still enchants in a big way. Ask owner Bill Chapin what the eighth wonder of the world is, and he'll quip, "Rock City," before you can say "See Seven States."
Bill, a gnomelike man with an impish grin, takes his stewardship of Rock City seriously. His great-uncle and -aunt Garnet and Frieda Carter started it all. While Garnet invented the world's first miniature golf course, his wife planted an ambitious garden. The golf didn't last, yet the fairy-tale attraction continues to thrive.
Much is the same here, but thankfully some things have changed. Most notably, you won't feel that you have to sleep in a barn or a birdhouse to stay on the mountain. The redesigned Chanticleer Inn beds you down in pure comfort. There's also a new view of an explorable golden maze of corn in the valley below.
- Loading comments...
