For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
At 3,640 feet above sea level on the Eastern Continental Divide, Georgia’s Appalachian Black Rock Mountain State Park near Mountain City is our state’s highest state park and “encompasses some of the most outstanding scenery in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Roadside overlooks provide spectacular 80-mile vistas, and four hiking trails lead visitors past wildflowers, streams, small waterfalls and lush forests.” (Park website)
One very neat feature of this park is that once you walk out the door of the visitors center with your trail maps (and snack and Travel Tree ornament, of course), you are right at the Black Rock Overlook.
One not-so-neat aspect is Robert backing closer and closer to the 3446 feet drop. JUST TO TAKE A SELFIE.
Somehow he cajoled and pressured me into coming down from the safe snack machine at the visitor center to take another life-risking selfie.
Glorious hiking at the Eastern Continental Divide.
And here’s Robert at pier’s end … and obviously very happy! (Robert’s happiness barometer is set fairly low.)
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
Providence Canyon State Park in southwest Georgia near Lumpkon is one of our state’s most visually stunning parks. And yet it’s here because of man’s misuse of the land! Often called Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon,” Providence Canyon “is a testament to the power of man’s influence on the land. Massive gullies as deep as 150 feet were caused simply by poor farming practices during the 1800s, yet today they make some of the prettiest photographs within the state.” (Park website). The geological formations caused by massive erosion are indeed extraordinary to behold.
Robert and I hiked the upper rim trail to start our visit.
Just crazy how close the path was to the canyon edges! I kept yelling at Robert, trying recklessly to snap the perfect photo, to “Get back! Are you crazy?!”
Down at the canyon floor, looking up, the colors were amazing, and the water table produced trickling streams we had to navigate.
For some reason (childhood issues?), Robert wanted to see how far he could back into a crevice in the canyon …
(Sometimes in a relationship, you just have to go with it.)
Man’s Botching Up.
Nature’s Boundless Beauty.
If you’re interested here’s a short article with more about Providence Canyon…
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
The Dahlonega Gold Museum is one of Georgia’s sixteen Historic Sites, all part of the Georgia State Park system.
We visited Dahlonega in July of this year and learned that “twenty years before the 1849 gold rush in California, thousands of prospectors flocked into the Cherokee Nation in north Georgia, marking the true beginning of our country’s first gold rush. Dahlonega thrived and a U.S. Branch Mint opened in 1838, coining more than $6 million in gold before closing in 1861.” (Historic site website)
My primary goal for this trip was gold, the acquisition of gold, much gold.
It didn’t happen. All we gained from our mining and panning in Dahlonega was facts. Many facts, fascinating facts.
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
Red Top Mountain State Park is a lovely densely forested park located on 12,000 acre Lake Allatoona north of Atlanta. The name “Red Top” comes from the high iron-ore content which causes the soil to have a rich red color.
Our cabin (with me trying my very best to figure out how to open the door) followed by the cottage we rejected …
Kidding … t’s the 1869 Vaughn Log Cabin behind the park’s visitors center.
We stayed at Red Top during the height of the pandemic, so we laid low around the cabin for most of our visit. Joyful quietness.
Here I am, looking slightly crazed, but adding to the already existing totems in our cabin’s back area leading down to the lake. Sending healthy thoughts and energy to all.
May we be Happy. May we be Healthy. May we be Safe. May we be at Peace and live our lives with Ease.
And here are some beautiful images Robert captured. (I thought about claiming that I had taken them. But you know my impeccable standards with TIB—Truth in Blogging.)
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
Hi there.
Welcome to the 10th day of my “Countdown to Christmas” series. Today we head over to Chattahoochee Bend State Park, near Newnan, Georgia. We visited on a short day trip in early March of 2020 before Spring made much of an appearance.
Chattahoochee Bend gets its name from, well, a bend in the Chattahoochee River.
Lots of hiking on this day.
The color scheme for this post is brown. But Robert found a few bits of color …
Here’s a riveting short, narrative-driven film, entitled, “Stick Gear: Winding Down by the Bend,” written, directed and filmed by Robert John Smith Jr, choreographed by and starring Neal Saye.
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
Yesterday, I wrote about Fort Mountain State Park. Cloudland Canyon is just a short drive away, so we took a day trip over. This state park, just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee and on the western edge of Lookout Mountain, boasts stunning views of craggy hills and waterfalls along three beautiful trails.
Two features are especially memorable at Cloudland Canyon: waterfalls and lots of steps.
Sometimes there’s a price for beauty. Imminent danger awaited me at every turn …
For some reason (the high altitude?), Robert wanted perfect strangers to take his picture at this state park.
“Robert, look at all the steps up this way! Come on up, slow poke!”
Robert’s response …
Thank you, State of Georgia, for establishing and preserving our Sensational State Parks!
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
“Fort Mountain State Park sits at the southwestern end of the Cohutta Mountains near the Cohutta Wilderness in northwest Georgia. Sitting at 2,850 feet above sea level, Fort Mountain is a great destination for hiking and history lessons alike. The area in and around the park was home to the Cherokee Indians for hundreds of years, and their legacy is still felt throughout North Georgia today.” (Park website)
This was one of the more beautiful parks we have visited in Georgia, or anywhere.
Soon after we arrived, we hiked over to the Cool Springs Overlook.
Later on, a cool little family told us about the unique Blue-Ghost Fireflies, which live in mature woodlands with high canopies, especially around mountain laurel and rhododendrons. They said to go back up to Cool Springs Overlook about dusk because Fort Mountain was one of the few places in southern Appalachia to find them. “But you have to look carefully; sometimes they show—sometimes they don’t!” Never ones to turn down an adventure, we headed back up to the overlook a little before dark …
After about thirty minutes, Robert started getting a little antsy about being out in the woods after dark. (He had probably seen Deliverance years back.) But I really wanted to see the bluish lightning bugs. Also I had wanted to bring a glass Mason‘s fruit jar to put a couple of them in. But it’s 2021.
Looking all around, scanning every inch of the darkening sky, I became more and more desperate to see a firefly. “Robert! Look, LOOK!” I finally screamed, pointing, so excited.
“Neal, that’s the moon. And please stop yelling.”
We really did see the fireflies when it got completely dark. But it was too dark to photograph them. Google Blue-Ghost Fireflies. They’re fascinating.
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Now, listen to this: there’s a HIDDEN HEART at Fort Mountain! Really.
It seems that during the Great depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps built a fire tower at the very top of Fort Mountain.
Well, one young stone worker named Arnold Bailey missed his love back on the homefront so much that he carved out and sneaked in a heart-shaped stone and placed it smack dab above a prominent window.
And if that story isn’t cool enough, listen to this: Arnold and Margaret were married 59 years until Arnold died. He died from kidney stones.
Okay, TIB (Truth in Blogging): I made up his cause of death. I couldn’t find out ANYTHING about how Arnold passed away, and it seemed just so boring to end the story with “… Arnold died.” Kidney stones seemed to fit the rock theme. Sorry. I know how important it is for bloggers, like politicians, to always tell the truth.
I asked Robert if one day he would do something for me, long lasting and commemorative, like Arnold had done for Margaret. He just stared at me with no expression. But I can read Robert’s expressions, even the blank ones. This particular one said emphatically, “Just putting up with you is a heart-shaped, rocky monument.”
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
We stopped by Reed Bingham, just north of Valdosta, on our way back home from a trip to west Georgia. Named after the man responsible for securing the land to establish the park, it is a feast for nature lovers, with hiking trails meandering down sandy paths and through seemingly never ending waves of saw palmetto and wire grass, all underneath my beloved, scattered Longleaf.
We actually saw a gopher tortoise, but he scooted down his hole before we could take a picture.
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
Our first pandemic Georgia State Park trip, back in March of 2020, was a simple weekday excursion an hour and a half up the road to Magnolia Springs State Park near Millen. We reasoned that few people would be around during the week, and we were right. We had the park almost to ourselves.
We liked the park (and getting out of the house) so much that this short venture started our recurring overnight pattern of heading to a park on Monday, renting a cabin and returning before the weekend crowd arrived.
TIB (Truth in Blogging): Today’s countdown post is sorta long, so you might want to grab a snack and change into comfortable shoes. I’m incorporating three Magnolia Springs trips into one post.
The park website: “Beautiful Magnolia Springs State Park is known for its crystal clear springs flowing 7,000,000 gallons per day, and a boardwalk spans the cool water, allowing visitors to look for alligators, turtles and other wildlife near the springs.”
“Yeah, right, they’re just saying that about the big bad alligators,” I thought haughtily, standing in the sun by the springs, staring out at the water, daydreaming about our upcoming picnic lunch and my special sandwich.
Oh. My. Goodness …
Jeff Bezos couldn’t pay me enough to fish, feed or approach.
The Longleaf Pine’s distinctive orangish, peely bark.
As I I have mentioned before, Robert and I love the Longleaf Pine, which excessive logging has cut to the brink of extinction, but is now making a bit of a comeback. Magnolia Springs has quite a number of majestic, mature specimens. (And so unlike with the alligators, I am simply not afraid of the Longleaf.)
I LOVE hiking through a forest replete with the beauty and aroma of Longleaf Pine.
The Longleaf pine cones are huge.
Oh, here’s my new walking stick. I MEAN HIKING STICK!
Our cabin (and the goings-on inside and out) at Magnolia Springs. Come on in.
And looky here, it’s me leading a little impromptu (and free!) “Everyone is Welcome—Morning Yoga and Mental Cleanse Workshop.”
Even Robert didn’t show. He chose (non-supportingly) to sleep in.
But here he is, gay-ly, pridefully starting a fire.
I need to end this post, don’t I? It’s getting out of hand.
We really do love our nearby Magnolia Springs State Park.
NealEnJoy 