Nature is Rest

An Experiential Review of Kennesaw Mountain.

By: Sarah Hampton

September 9, 2025

For this experiential review I wanted to immerse myself into a place that was familiar but also a place that would reveal new details to me as I was fully immersed into it. I have hiked Kennesaw Mountain many times, but when I hike, I usually look at the ground or what is in front of me. I stay on the trail, and I follow unofficial guidelines that I have created when it comes to hiking. Don’t go alone, don’t stop for breaks, keep going until you reach the top. I don’t really stop and admire what is going on around me, so I wanted to experience Kennesaw Mountain in this new way.

Like I mentioned before, I don’t like to go alone on hikes, but I wanted to really push myself out of my comfort zone. So I went alone. Do not be me, it is not safe to go hiking alone, especially as a woman, so maybe that was a stupid idea, but I hiked with caution. I really wanted this experience to be immersive because I always look at the ground and do not stop for breaks, so I told myself that I was going to make the effort to stop and takes breaks to really look around. I also told myself that I was going to hike slower than I normally do and I was going to find a spot on the mountain to sit without going on my phone and in complete silence for an hour. At first, an hour of silence seemed like overkill and not necessary for a solo trip, but this actually ended up being a great thing and I’ll get to that later. In addition to this, I told myself that this wasn’t going to be a normal hike, I wanted to challenge myself to really sit in the moment and the journey that is hiking, so I decided to not have a destination. I told myself that I was not hiking to the top. This was very hard for me at first because I am a person who looks forward to the destination, but I wanted to really experience the journey.

Noses Creek Loop Trailhead (Pigeon Hill Trail)

I have done a lot of the trails at Kennesaw Mountain, so I decided that I would hike one of the trails that I didn’t remember, the Noses Creek Loop, a 3.6-mile hike that normally takes about 2.5 hours. Not too difficult. When I started the hike, the first thing that I noticed was the amount of fallen down trees and rocks that were on the trails. These were small rocks; they were large ones that made me very glad that I ended up wearing my hiking boots as opposed to my normal tennis shoes. The trees looked like they had been fallen for a while, for months, maybe even years. Moss had started to grow on the stumps that still stood upright and out of the ground. The rest of the trees that had fallen were lying on the rocky ground that was covered in a blanket of dead leaves and sticks. The cicadas were very loud, it sounded as though they were all yelling at the sun to stop being so hot and to cool down the branches, they were laying their bodies on.

As I continued on the trail, walking the slowest I had ever walked on a hike, I looked up and noticed that the sky was perfectly clear. There weren’t any clouds, it was just bright blue peeking through the gaps in between the trees surrounding us. Another thing that I noticed was the smell. I know weird thing to notice, but it was a comforting smell. It was the smell of the earth. The gritty and rich smell of the dirt mixed with the woody smell of the trees. The smell would come and go as the breeze would blow. At this point of the trail, I started to search for the perfect observing perch. As I was looking around, I noticed a giant boulder that had a ledge, perfect for sitting, right on top of the hill that was right next to me. I decided to go off of the trail and to make the boulder my viewing point for my “experience.”

On top of the boulder

Once I got on top of the boulder, I started my timer for complete silence and no phone for one hour and started to observe. The first thing I noticed while I was up on the boulder was the Atlanta skyline that you could see out in the distance. It honestly looked like a shot out of a movie. The trees surrounding the boulder framed the skyline view as if it were a movie screen in a theater with thick red curtain draped around it. The boulder was at a high enough position that I couldn’t be seen from the trail, but I could still see the trail and everyone that was hiking it.

The trees that were surrounding the boulder had this fungus growing all over them. They were these dark knobs that were all over the trunk and the branches of the tree. With further research after the excursion, I was able to determine that these trees were unfortunately affected by Black Knot Disease. I didn’t know that at the time of recording this detail, but I did find it very fascinating. Another thing that I noticed and took note of was the ants that were on the boulder with us. It wasn’t an issue, they weren’t biting us, but there were many of them. I noticed that the Carpenter ants were able to climb down the steep edge of the boulder while the red ants were doing something completely different. The red ants were grabbing pieces of the moss that was on top of the boulder, small bits of leaves, and even dead red ants and bringing them across the boulder and onto the rocks surrounding the boulder we were sitting on. This was a fascinating pattern that I noticed but didn’t think too much about.

“When we are constantly moving at the speed of the world, fast paced, and never slowing down, we miss the stillness of nature and the rest that it can provide.”

Image of the trees at Kennesaw Mountain

Before I knew it, my alarm went off, but I still wanted to sit in silence. So I just continued to sit in silence, just watching the trail and the nature, enjoying the silence and the moment of rest. When we are constantly moving at the speed of the world, fast paced, and never slowing down, we miss the stillness of nature and the rest that it can provide. Before, I used to be so focused on completing my hikes and making it to the top, but this specific excursion taught me to slow down, enjoy what is right in front of me and to look at the small details in nature. There were so many beautiful things that I wouldn’t have noticed if I had gone with my normal hiking routine. In the end, I decided to sit on top of that boulder for three hours in complete silence.