From Kennesaw Mountain's peak

Midway on the Kennesaw Mountain trail

Driving past Atlanta’s legendary sprawl, housing developments sprouting in the pines and construction-delayed traffic, it hardly seemed like a National Park unit was approaching. I had been looking at Kennesaw Mountain all morning without even knowing it.

Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park preserves almost 3,000 acres of battlefield across Kennesaw Mountain and several nearby peaks. Nancy’s work brought us to Kennesaw, and I tagged along to burn off some vacation days, eager for a bright morning in a national park unit.

This battlefield might be national park unit best known to baseball buffs, thanks to baseball’s infamously racist first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, named for the battle where his father was injured as a Union soldier. That's the sole baseball connection, but I knew the name Kennesaw Mountain since I was eight and started learning baseball history.

A steep one-mile trail exits the visitor center to wind up Kennesaw Mountain. The path climbs 600 feet in the course of a mile, with few level stretches and many rocky gardens to navigate.

A mile cruises by, and the peak looms. Many people jogged to the top, others brought their dogs and some headed straight for benches or smoothed rocks to enjoy the relative quiet. From the top, a forest spreads out to the south, hiding much of the sprawl until the steel peaks of Atlanta and Buckhead emerge. On a clear day, the park manager told me, Stone Mountain also emerges. On this morning, urban haze enveloped all but the nearest few miles. To the north, a mix of storm clouds and industrial uses.

North-facing cannon

With the city wrapped around the site – which still boasts 18 miles of trails along the nearby ridges – it felt more like a city park than a Civil War battlefield at times. People came out for morning jogs and hikes. I got one of the few spots in the main lot; by the time I left, drivers circled rather than skip to the overflow lot down the road.

The park claims an excellent visitor center with a museum that recounts the battle. While a Confederate victory – they did hold the high ground- the battle preceded the fall of Atlanta. Part of me wouldn’t mind returning to spend a little time in the museum, stopping at the Illinois Monument (each battlefield always houses a monument worth seeing) or to try out the 11- mile trail.

After working up a sweat on the slope of Kennesaw Mountain, I cleaned up and met my parents for a lunch. Mom just read about a new barbecue place in downtown Kennesaw. Dad and Mom arrived with printed directions to The Nest. We caught up over barbecue plates. It was a pleasant morning and as always, never enough time before they dropped me off.

Back in Nashville, I discussed the state of downtown Kennesaw with my mom, in which she was surprised there weren’t older buildings. But we both realized that many cities in the path of General Sherman’s army ended up torched and sacked, so a downtown rising with new buildings emulating an older style isn’t much of a reach on the path to Atlanta.

With its swath of protected mountain and battlefield, Kennesaw’s heritage is not one of brick but forest where armies lurked. Standing behind a Confederate cannon emplacement, it didn’t matter that metro Atlanta grew into the park’s flank. The land won’t ever face development.

Kennesaw Mountain stands 600 feet above congested roads but none of the peak’s quiet beauty can be stripped away.

Somewhere in that haze lies downtown Atlanta