Monday, July 14, 2014

Exploring our new home : Red Top Mountain State Park


I know that I said that there would be one more day of Blue Ridge pictures, but honestly I took about six pictures as we drove home from vacation and I didn't feel that it was important enough to take up the time. I can now officially say we are done with Memorial Day vacation on this blog.

Hey, I heard that collective sigh of relief. Be sweet.

Our weekends since moving to Georgia have been spent exploring in our new proverbial back yard. There are so many state and national parks, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and trails to see that we try to visit at least one new place every Saturday. One such weekend in June was spent at Red Top Mountain State Park. This particular state park is almost 1800 acres of natural beauty and is centered around Georgia's largest lake, Lake Allatoona. The lake itself is about 12,000 acres so of course it extends much farther than the park, but the recreational activities it lends to the place is incredible. This particular day, though, we were scouting out some trails to hike and were generally just getting a feel for the place.

Having a four year old with you tends to curb your way of thinking when it comes to the types of terrain that you choose to explore, so we started out with a paved walking trail to see how Canon would hang. We took the Lakeside Trail because it followed along the side of the lake {genius naming there, don't ya think?!} and because you can view an old blacksmith shop and cabin along the way. Craig and I love learning the history of places when we travel so it immediately stood out as the place for us to start.

Unfortunately, all of the doors were locked and you couldn't see inside the spaces so there wasn't much to learn about these structures, but they were nice to look at. Canon even asked if we could camp out there one night and was heartbroken to hear that it wasn't for rent.



He quickly recovered, though, and picked some flowers for me. Perhaps he thought that I was upset at not being able to stay there as well?


As we found throughout our trek, there are quite a few fallen trees in the water. They create an almost ghostly effect when you look at them from the surface because the water is so clear and emerald that you can see all of the shadows that are cast.


As I stated previously, this lake provides recreational activities for all to enjoy, such as swimming, fishing, boating, kayaking, tubing, and canoeing. To the right of this dock, there were several children swimming that particular day in a designated area.


After {somewhat} convincing Canon that we shouldn't swim that particular day as the park rangers would likely frown upon us skinny dipping, we decided to check out another trail. Whitetail Trail is a much more natural walk {i.e. no pavement} and we still had plenty of energy to explore.

We asked Canon to point out the trail name that started with a 'w', and I would like to think that he was just too short to reach the top, but I believe he was thinking that the 'm' was a 'w'. Which means I have more work to do.



Craig explained blazes to Canon and had him on the lookout for all of the white blazes on our particular trail so that he would understand how not to get lost. Now, of course, when we go out we are constantly on the lookout for blazes of any color, so thanks for that babe.



Though I am not sure why, there is a small bridge on one side of one section of this trail. Perhaps the water rises over the trail in that spot sometimes? In any case, Canon had a blast running across it for about 15 minutes. Once he was tired enough to sit still, we had a little photo shoot.


He wanted to take a picture of us, so we obliged.


At one point, I guess he thought we were going to be setting up camp because I looked back to find him gathering sticks and leaves "for our fire". It's good to know he is prepared to build one and knows what goes on it, but I had to tell him that we didn't need that during this trip. Can you picture the alligator tears that started at that point? I mean, he actually found a spot to "hide" his supplies so no one else would take them and we could get it the next time we came. I cannot make this stuff up. {And for the record, no, he did not look for them the next time we took this trail.}


At the end of this trail, there are huge boulders that we climbed around to get close to the lake.


My boys sure do love the water.





This is probably as good a time as any to explain that Canon dressed himself that day. I would like to state that I had nothing to do with his soccer sweatband that he found in a box that we were unpacking the day before and he insisted on wearing. Apparently, it helps you to run faster and hike longer.




On the way back to the car, I noticed a bunch of white flowers that were pretty far off the trail. I, of course, didn't have hiking shoes on {mainly because I don't own any}, but was determined to get a shot of them. I started down the hill cautiously because I didn't want to happen upon any creatures of a certain slithery nature. My boys thought it was hilarious to make hissing noises to try to scare me on my side trek. Yeah, really funny. After taking about 20 minutes longer than I probably should have to get down to the flower patch, I found that my camera card was completely full so I only got about four shots of the beauties.


Not to fear though. We went back to the same park {different area} the next weekend and I went back for more pictures then. I will share them later.


Anyone know what these flowers are called? If not, then I will just call them fluffy white powder flowers.

Someone please tell me the real name because my naming conventions are stupid.







1 comment:

  1. Love reading about your family adventures! Miss you guys!

    ---J/J and tinymite

    ReplyDelete