Fall Color in Georgia

The calendar page turned to October this morning. In North Georgia and throughout the Southern Appalachia, that means travelers will be thinking about fall color and when to plan their visits to the mountains. With such considerations in mind, Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites maintains a seasonal webpage that they call Leafwatch, and the site will become active for another season some time today. Leafwatch, as the name suggests, tracks the seasonal changing of the leaves in Georgia, along with containing information about why leaves change colors, a list of top parks for enjoying fall color, a direct link for camping or lodging reservations for Georgia state parks and much more. In the past, the site has even included a webcam view from Black Rock Mountain, which sets the highest of any of Georgia's state park.

For now, the color is barely beginning to creep into the woods around my North Georgia town of Clarkesville. Enough leaves have turned to give mostly green woods a slight autumn cast, but we are still a couple of weeks removed from things really looking "fallish," and I think our prettiest color comes at the very end of October or even into the beginning of November. In November, a lot of leaves have fallen, but everything that remains on the trees is either a bright hue, bronze or brown, creating a very a strong look of autumn as you look across the mountains.

Visit Georgia State Parks for Free

Have you hiked to the bottom of Tallulah Gorge or the top of Amicalola Falls? Have you stepped down into Providence Canyon or explored the stand of old growth trees in Indian Spring State Park? If you have places you've been intending to explore or a lake you've been meaning to fish within a Georgia State Park or Historic Site, Saturday, Sept. 29 would be a great day to cross something of a wish list.

As part of "Your State Parks Day" parking and admission fees in Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites will be waved on Sept. 29. Savings range from $2.50 to $10, depending on the park selected. The day, which is sponsored by Friends of Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites will also feature special volunteer days in a host of parks throughout the state.

Three parks, Jekyll Island, Stone Mountain and Lake Lanier, are not operated by the Department of Natural Resources' State Parks Division and are not included in the free day.

Fishing Hard Labor Creek State Park

Nathaniel, Asher and I spent a fun day exploring the waters of Georgia's Hard Labor Creek State Park in Nathaniel's johnboat. The park's two lakes, Lake Brantley and Lake Rutledge, both provide boating and bank-fishing opportunities, and park literature notes that both lakes are stocked with bass, bluegill, shellcrackers and catfish. Of the stocked species, we caught bass and bluegill. We also caught a couple of crappie and a couple of other sunfish.

Both lakes impound Hard Labor Creek. Brantley is the smaller of the two lakes and is close the park's main day-use areas, campground and cabins. It is extremely shallow, and I've only seen its waters heavily stained. Rental boats provide extra access to anglers who don't want to fish from the bank. Lake Rutledge doesn't have rental boats, but it does have a boat ramp. That, along with it's larger size, seem to cause it to get more attention from fishermen who aren't necessarily camping in the park or staying the cabins. It also offers more depth variety and can be less stained.

We heard good reports about the crappie, catfish and bluegills from a neighbor in the campground, and while we didn't catch anything very large, we saw enough fish and enough promise that we'd gladly return to Hard Labor Creek to give its waters another try.

George L. Smith State Park a South Georgia Gem

"This would be a great day on the water if we didn't catch a fish," Nathaniel said as he pushed his paddle through the tea-colored water of Parrish Mill Pond, sliding the canoe through a gap between two tupelo trees and giving us both good casts to a pocket off the main creek channel.

I agreed. The 400-acre mill pond, which, along with the mill itself, form the centerpiece of George L. Smith State Park in South Georgia, would be spectacular to explore with no fishing rod in hand. That didn't really matter, though, because we did catch fish, both bass and pickerel, despite it being very early in the year and us knowing little about the lake.

The pond, which is loaded with tupelos and cypress and has some shallow swampy areas, has three blazed canoe trail that together offer several miles of paddling opportunities. Bass, crappie, bluegills, pickerel and channel catfish all provide fishing opportunities, but the pictures on the wall of the park office suggest that really big largemouths are the main attraction to visiting fishermen. One bass weighed more than 14 pounds!

The pond's dam and the combination sawmill/gristmill and covered bridge were built in 1880 and have a rich history. Across the bridge, on a short hiking trail, visitors are apt to spot Georgia's state reptile, the gopher tortoise.

I had visited George L. Smith several years ago, while doing some writing research, and had always wanted to get back down there. Having spent today fishing the mill pond, I'm already longing to return and spend more time in this gem of a park!