Celebrate Georgia State Parks

A group of 3 couples, great friends for many years began camping together on Labor Day Weekend at Black Rock Mountain St Pk in 1998 - when most of our kids were still growing up. Throughly the years different families have joined us for that annual holiday weekend, and some of the grown “kids” from our original 3 couples camp with us each year…along with our grandkids. The 3 husbands of the original group were fellow church league softball players & were very competitive! So years ago we began playing a horseshoe tournament while camping and we would have a trophy ceremony. The winner of the tournament would get to choose which GA State Park we’d camp in the next Labor Day Weekend! We’ve since switched from horseshoes to having a cornhole tournament and our 3 “original guys” decide where to camp the following year. This past Labor Day 2025 we had 7 families camping together at Mistletoe St Pk! Some of our other favorite GA St Pks are Elijah Clark, Victoria Bryant, AH Stephen’s, Hard Labor Creek. For 2026 Labor Day our group of family and friends have already made reservations for AH Stephen’s State Park! We all have RVs and enjoy the ease of getting to our beautiful GA State Parks within a reasonable time frame from our homes. We do appreciate those who manage our state parks and keep them looking so good! We often joke that the parks system should do a story about how long our group has been camping together in the GA State Parks! My family’s recreational motto is “Keep on Camping!”

Since Cloudland Canyon State Park in North Georgia is about an hours' drive from my community in Burning Bush my father would drive us up to the mountain after church on Sundays. We would stop along the way at an old country store for a "stick" of bologna and a loaf of Colonial sliced white bread. The views are exquisite and the falls were beckoning. There were no steps down during those years-it was slip and slide on a rocky path. Unfortunately for the reader I don't have a photo I can send online. The memories are vivid in my mind. Since then I've taken my children hiking and Civic Arts League had an all day artist retreat at one of the pavillions. Check it out. It's still magic!

The Georgia's Great Places magazine illustrates so many amazing places in Georgia. We converted the covers into a wall decor piece.

We spend every Thanksgiving at a Georgia state park and call it campsgiving. We have done this for almost 10 years and it is great family time. We started at Indian Springs and now go to FDR

July 23, 2025

On July 1st, 2024 (just over a year ago) I set out on a quest. I decided that I wanted to visit all 59 State Parks/Historic Sites in Georgia. On July 21st, 2025, at General Coffee State Park in Nicholls, I got my final stamp. This adventure took 4 camping trips, several overnight trips, and visiting a record of 6 parks a day. I went from the majestic mountains at Cloudland Canyon, Fort Mountain, and Black Rock Mountain, to the swamps of Laura Walker and Stephen Foster, to the coastal forts of McAllister, Morris, and King George.

I visited 3 sets of Indian Mounds at Kolomoki, Etowah, and at Hardman Farm. Majestic plantations like Jarrell Plantation, Wormsloe, Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation/Rice Kingdom. I camped at Cloudland Canyon, Reed Bingham, Indian Springs, Black Rock Mountain, and James Floyd. I got to learn about the Cherokee history in Georgia at New Echota and the Chief Vann House. I got to see a gator at Stephen Foster. Was forced to ride a 20 minute shuttle ride 4 times at Wormsloe. I walked a mile at George Smith down a bug-infested trail to find a geocache. I had to hike 2 miles out the Smithgall Woods trying to find a geocache that wasn’t there.

The most interesting ones were those that had historical significance. I learned about what 19th century travel was like at Traveler’s Rest. The Georgia Gold Rush at the Dahlonega Gold Museum. I learned about Georgia’s long, lost towns at Tugaloo, Etowah, Don Carter, Moccasin Creek, and Fort Morris. I learned about Georgia’s Civil War past at Alexander Stephens, Picketts Mill Battlefield, Sweetwater Creek, Magnolia Springs, and Fort McAllister. I got to learn about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at Roosevelt’s Little White House, Vogel, and Fort Mountain. Georgia’s top industry is agriculture and I got to learn its long history at New Echota, Providence Canyon, Hardman Farm, Jarrell Plantation, General Coffee, and the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation. The mills at Hamburg, George Smith, and Sweetwater Creek, and Watson Mill.

This journey was like no other. I valued every moment of it. The amount of history I learned has inspired me to take up writing. As for my next adventure... I don’t know. I need to take a break for a while. Focus on my writing and future plans.