Category Archives: GA State Parks

Trey at Veterans Park (then & now)

Hard to believe it was five years ago that Trey and I were doing our year-long tour of Georgia’s State Parks and Historic Sites. Now that we’ve moved south of Macon, our closest park is Georgia Veterans State Park. We visited it again recently and took a photo of Trey by one of the tanks he had posed in front of almost five years ago to the day. It’s when you see then & now photos like this that you realize how fast your boy is growing up!

Trey at GA Veterans Park in 2013

Trey at GA Veterans Park in 2008

High Falls Hike

The leaves are all down now, but a few weeks ago when it wasn’t too chilly and the woods were still vibrant we took a little afternoon excursion up to High Falls State Park. We hiked the 2.5 mile “Tranquil Trail” and then walked down to the lower falls. With winter approaching, it got dark faster than expected and we had to leave by six.

Warm Springs with the Grandparents

Trey at Little White House (again)My dad is a big history buff so I knew FDR’s Little White House in Warm Springs, GA was something he would love. It is Georgia’s most visited State Historic Site and rightly so as it has a great museum & facilities.

My brother Philip suffers from a disability that requires him to wear braces when he walks and he has to use a wheelchair when it comes to longer distances. It was neat to see the braces Roosevelt woreOne of FDR's leg braces from the 1930s in his day (the best of the best at that time) and compare them to those Philip had on today. Medical science has made leaps and bounds in the last 70 years and Philip is much more comfortable thanks to that! In fact, even his wheel chair is 100x better than those Roosevelt used – who’d have thought you could improve so much on the simple concept of “wheel+chair” so much.

Labor Day is the only time of year when the pools that Roosevelt used during his time at Warm Springs are filled. The last time we visited the pools were empty, but today they had crystal clear, warm, spring water in them. Philip & Trey listen to a video in the museumBoth Trey and Philip were very tempted to get in!

One advantage of having a Friends of Georgia State Parks membership is that you and 6 others get into any historic site for free. Today we saved $32 – that’s almost half of the cost of the annual membership! Don’t you want one?

Sprewell Bluff with the Joslins

The Flint River at Sprewell Bluff State Park (HDR image)The best Georgia State Park to visit that is under an hour’s drive from Macon is Sprewell Bluff. We took our visiting Minnesotan friends (the Joslins) there for a picnic and some fun in the Flint River.

Hugo and Trey had a blast in the water and the adults spent a lot of time stacking rocks (like we’ve done there before). Before leaving we hiked up to the lookout point to get a great view of the river bend as the sun started to go down.

High Falls State Park Celebration

William and Trey get their photo taken with Becky Kelley, director of Georgia's State Parks, and Tom Mills with his the "family on the go"To celebrate our having visited all of Georgia’s State Parks & Historic sites within a year, we had a cookout at High Falls State Park and invited all our Georgia friends. Heidi friends from work came, my camera club friends attended, our buddies from church showed up, and even some old friends from our college years at Carson-Newman College were there!

The biggest surprise was Becky Kelley, director of Georgia’s State Parks, showed up with her husband and a family that visited 30 parks in 30 days last year. She presented me with some State Park swag and made me an official volunteer.

Rachel & Allister Lowery of Decatur, Heidi and Trey Haun of Macon, and Claire & Abby Slade of Atlanta at High Falls State Park after the Hauns' celebration cookout. William Haun and his 2 year-old son Trey visited all 63 of Georgia's State Parks and Historic Sites from July 2008 to July 2009.It was a fun time of hanging out with friends and enjoying the park’s facilities. Some folks explored the falls to take photos, the kids all enjoyed the playground, and a few others went hiking down along the water. At the end of the day we were all exhausted and had way too much leftover food to take home.