Forest Fridays-Edition 2

Back in May, a few days after school let out for the summer, Stella and I headed for the woods to seek out a waterfall. It was a bit of a haul for us, but we both really enjoyed the waterfall and it's surroundings. I labeled the blog post Forest Friday and that was that. 

Then I awoke this morning and thought, ya know, we should do that again. Well, actually, my original plan was to stay inside and be "lazy". I use the quotation marks because I'm far from lazy since I'm constantly puttering, organizing, straightening, cleaning something, etc...but I just didn't really want to go anywhere with it raining. And I wanted to try to make homemade English muffins with Stella. Then I realized two things: 1. The rain was over. 2. I didn't have all of the ingredients to make the muffins.

My initial gut instinct on where to go was Sweetwater Creek. It's not far from the house, there's water (which Stella always gravitates to), shade and it's beautiful. But I thought we should try someplace new. I have this goal in my head of wanting to visit all of the Georgia State Parks and I figured if we went somewhere close, but new, it would get me closer to checking them off of the list.

I remembered hearing about Panola Mountain and knew it wasn't too far from Atlanta. I also remember thinking I'd read somewhere that it was similar to Stone Mountain. From the website: "Panola Mountain is a 100-acre granite outcrop similar to Stone Mountain, but smaller and much more pristine. Park visitors will see the outcrop and its rare ecosystem just as Native Americans did centuries ago."

I decided PMSP was doable for a last minute day trip.  I packed a picnic lunch and got us ready. I remembered reading that dogs weren't allowed on some of the trails so I left Bandit at home. 

It takes us about 45 minutes to get there. We pull in and immediately pass a beautiful and large playground. I keep driving trying to find a visitor's center. We get out to see a Nature Center and I grab a map. I immediately look to see where we are in relation to the mountain. Then I read, "Ranger-led guided hikes are required to access the mountain."  Well damn.  So one of the two rangers there asks me if he can help with anything. I tell him we are just visiting for the day but would like to see the mountain and possibly the lake. I see where there is a trail which leads to an overlook and he tells me it's a little over a mile to get to the overlook. Then he says parts of the lake are closed for damn repair, it's really low and in fact, part of the lake doesn't even have water in it. Crap. This is not going how I planned. 


We hop back in the car and drive to the parking lot where we can access the trail. I then realize it's a PATH trail. I don't actually know what that is, but I recognized it from Smyrna.  The "trail" is paved, with yellow lines like ones on a road for two-way traffic. We start walking. 

We come up on a stream which flows under our walkway and stop to peek into the woods. See, there are wooded hikes/trailways, but none of them lead to the overlook so we avoid them due to time constraints. This means, we miss the beauty of the forest I love so much. I adore the ferns, moss, lichen and various mushrooms which line the forest floor.

Here are some of my favorites from venture just off the PATH.

Trifecta in one photo: 'shrooms, ferns, bubbling creek.

I thought this was so neat. It's a piece of a log that has separated like the pages in a book.

My beauty next to a Beauty Berry Bush.

"Look Mama, this leaf looks like a cicada's wings!" 

We were able to see some cool stuff by occasionally stepping off of the PATH, but for the most part we walked on a cement side-walk essentially through a line of trees while dozens and dozens and dozens of low-flying aircraft flew over our head. Yeah, apparently PMSP is directly underneath the flight/landing path for the airport. You know that whole saying about the airport where a plane takes off every 3 seconds? Yeah so literally we didn't get a single second of peace and quiet in the "woods" despite being the ONLY people out there. That was eerie. Oh and considering we were the only people out there and on the PATH we could have had Bandit with us to get some exercise. I hate we didn't bring him. 

Whatever....we keep walking and walking. Stella asks "How much farther?" a few times. Finally. I see the sign for the overlook. The signage should have read "overlook" because I have no idea what they are talking about. I mean, when your website says, "granite outcrop similar to Stone Mountain" I'm picturing a tall-ish, bald-ish mountain to view from this overlook. But nope. The foreground was just some rocks covered in moss and lichen and the background was trees. 

This is the "view" guys.

There is more of a "view" behind Stella here. (She picked that flower for me.) 

And full disclosure? We jumped off the end of the boardwalk "overlook" to get a better look around. Turns out we weren't supposed to do that, but oh well. It was brief.

This is looking back up where the boardwalk and overlook were.

Panola Mountain State Park was....how do I put this? Underwhelming? A let-down? A bust? Disappointing? Boring? Stella and I decided on boring. And then she let me know just how boring she thought it was on our walk back to the car. I admit, I was bored myself. I really wish I had done better research on this state park.  

So yes, we were bored. But, not terribly bored. I mean, it was still a beautiful day with a lovely and sometimes gusty wind. We saw a baby pinkish-grayish snake come slithering quite quickly in front of us, plus a lot of grasshoppers both big and small. Lots of butterflies were fluttering around us and Stella rescued several caterpillars, (all of which were a different color and size) from imminent death on the PATHway. We also got lots of fresh air and exercise walking just over 2 1/2 miles.  Also, and TMI for some, but Stella was super excited to "pee like a boy" with our GoGirl funnel in the woods. Ha. It's the simple things, guys.

Translation on Panola Mountain State Park: That quote above talking about it being "smaller and more pristine [than Stone Mountain]" was clearly true. Turns out, most granite outcrops are mined, Stone Mountain being no exception, which robs the mountain of it's natural inhabitants-moss, lichen, resurrection ferns, etc. But Panola Mountain was never mined which is why it is so wooded and "pristine."

So yeah, I'm not sure if we'll be back here. I mean, I could drive the same distance and just be at Stone Mountain Park and I know we would NOT be bored there.