ExploringNov 7, 2011
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Providence Canyon
Kolomoki Indian Mounds
Cotton in the fields
| As fulltimers we can enjoy traveling to most any place we desire and have our home with us. We tend look to at the far away places, Yellowstone, the Southwest, New England, etc and forget those places near to where we lived in our stix and brix life. I was born in Georgia and have lived here all but about 15 years of my life. While I have seen many places in the beautiful state of Georgia, there are still many that I have not visited. So as hitch itch settle in and temperatures began to drop we decided to travel a little before the holidays get here. We selected southwest Georgia for several reasons. We have spent very little time here and there are some places we wanted to see, we had read about several Corp of Engineer Campgrounds near West Point Lake and Lake Eufaula that might be good stops on our way to Florida and we have a campout with friends in Columbus next week. We stopped for one night at Whitetail Ridge COE Campground on West Point Lake near Lagrange, GA on our first night out. This a nice campground and any other time we might have stayed longer....but it was still cold with temperatures dropping to 32*...we really were looking for warmer. We enjoyed sitting outside and hearing the sounds of nature and also took a walk down to one other loop. This was the only campground opened on West Point Lake and will close on Nov 27th. Wednesday we drove about 100 more miles south to Lake Eufaula and Cottonhill COE Campground. We took a site in the first come area. What a beautiful campground! We have full hookups on a huge site for $11.00 a night with our Golden Age Pass! Will post pictures later. What a bargain. Only complaints are the flies and the laundry facilities. The weather has been wonderful....no heat! Lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's and abundant sunshine. We have taken advantage of this and hit the road to some of the sights in this area. First stop was Providence Canyon State Conservation Area. The canyon is beautiful. We both had seen pictures....but the colors are outstanding in person. This canyon was formed because of bad farming habits in the 1800's that resulted in the soil eroding. The canyon continues to get wider by 3-5 feet a year...but not deeper. I read that actually it is 20 feet less deep than it was 40 years ago. The colors in the canyon come from the chemicals present....red is from the iron, the pinks, purples, etc from magnesium and the white kaolin. We did not walk the trails....will leave that to the younger folks. Saturday we headed south to Kolomoki State Historical Park. We watched a film about the Indians who lived here around 950 AD and about the archaeological exploration of the site. There is also a small museum. We then walked out to the mounds and enjoyed reading the markers. Saturday also marked our 45th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed our time together doing what we love....seeing this beautiful country one backroad at a time. We came home from our exploring, set out by the lake and grilled our dinner. Both us can't believe its been 45 years! Today we drove over to Eufaula, AL to visit the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge. We arrived in late afternoon to drive the 7 mile tour through the refuge. We were not disappointed. We must have seen a dozen or more various species of hawks,many white herons, hundreds of ducks, and 4 alligators......one was at least 15 feet long. Along the backroads we have seen other wildlife.....deer, wild turkey, buzzards, and fox squirrels. There are miles of pine tree farms and fields of cottons. I had never seen rolls of cotton before....this cotton has not been to the gin. The deer picture was taken just behind our trailer..... We are having a good time and have more outings planned....so stay tuned. |
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