On our next 3-state park trip, we started out at Fort Yargo State Park just about 80 miles due east of where we live. Like our last park, this one is also inside the city’s limits. Winder is a nice, city (population just over 14,000) off of Hwy. 316 close to Athens. With the park’s lake and rolling pine/hardwood forest, it’s a much loved and used green space in metro Atlanta. The park even has a walking/bicycle road to Winder for a 1.2-mile trip one way that takes visitors to a grocery store, shopping center, and nearby restaurants.
the visitors center at the entrance to the park
seating area outside of the visitors center that overlooks the lake
Across the lake is the namesake of the park—Fort Yargo. More about this fort in the next post.
history of park
In the 1950s, C.O. Maddox from a local bank in Winder asked 5 men each from the Kiwanis Club and the Lion’s Club to help him establish a state park to encompass Fort Yargo and keep this part of Georgia’s history safe for us to learn about. With the help from Senator Richard Russell, 1497 acres were donated to the state in 1954. Later on other lands were purchased to bring the total acreage to 1816.
In the early 1960s, a dam was built over the Marbury Creek to create a 260-acre lake, Marbury Creek Watershed; it features a swimming beach, fishing areas, and boat ramps available to the public. Campers have 2 campgrounds to choose from for RVs and tents, 6 yurts for those who don’t have their own “homes,” and 16 cottages (plain outsides but probably nice inside). Camp Twin Lakes, designed for challenged populations, is within the park but is closed to the public.
When we left the state park, we could turn right to drive into Winder (1.5 miles) or turn left to get to a nearby Publix and Chick-fil-A (3.1 miles).
The first day we were in the area was National French Fries Day, so we drove to Chick-fil-A for their fries. Since they’re best when they’re hot, we nibbled on them on our way home and then enjoyed our lunches when we got back to our campsite.
The campground was fairly empty during the week, but weekends were busy everywhere.
waiting line on Sunday when we first entered the park
campground
We are in the smaller of the 2 campgrounds with only about 12 sites. The road is one way around us, which cut down on car traffic but not on the kids riding their bikes around the campground.
Barney had a straight shot up the drive to our campsite.
Such a lovely view. The dish water drain was close by so we could cut down on the gray water in our tank since we didn’t have a sewer connection.
We met a number of really nice people in the park and had lots of nice chats. A fishing bridge was at one end of our campground where dads and moms would bring their kids to try out fishing.
yurt village for 6 groups of people
one of the yurts
walk #1
Just outside of our campsite is the 7-mile Recreational Trail around the outside of the park for hikers and cyclists.
The entrance to the trail for walk #1 is just behind the yellow sign and past the children’s playground in the right side of the picture.
The trail can be accessed from many points in the park, and the trail crisscrosses other trails. Cyclists love this park since they have a 12.5-mile Mountain Bike Trail that has an elevation change of over 150 feet for experienced riders.
starting the walk
After just a few steps, we found that we could have gone in 1 of 3 trails.
Our goal was to see the dam over the creek that created this lake. See it in the distance?
After leaving the woods with the trees keeping us cool, we walked past these lovely wildflowers on our way to the dam.
view of the lake from the top of the dam
As we turned off the Yellow trail to wind our way back to our campsite, we heard the runoff coming out of the tube from the lake before we ever saw it. The tube is in the forefront.
runoff water rushing out of the tube
walk #2
In our next post we’ll show you the cemetery dating back hundreds of years, but afterwards we got back on the Recreational Trail at a different spot so we could see one of the boat ramps next to a bridge that connected land masses on the Yellow trail.
bridge from a distance
bridge up close
This is a new park feature for us: a Life Jacket Loaner Station that has smaller jackets for little ones.
As we said, this park is close to Athens, which means it’s a good facility for the University of Georgia rowing team.
Some of the rowing boats; bet the best ones are inside the building.
Just down the hill from the boat shed is this dock just for the rowing team.
All around the public areas of the park are these group shelters available for rentals.
These open group shelters are also available for use.
See the twisted “chain” hanging down from the branch? It’s a kudzu vine that’s been cut so it won’t keep on growing and taking over everything around it. We have a kudzu wreath over our fireplace at home—a good use of these nasty vines.
trumpet-like wildflowers along the trail
walk #3
On our way to our third walk/hike, we saw this post.
Cyclists ride in this direction on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On the other days, they ride in the reverse direction. Smart way to keep everyone going in the same direction.
The 1/2-mile Birdberry Nature Trail is accessible for all visitors.
The layered structure in most forests comes from the amount of light energy of plants and animals. The “canopy layer” requires the most sunlight, and competition between the trees is pretty fierce. In places such as tropical rain forests, the “emergent layer” has trees that need the most sunlight energy. Understory plants at ground level can tolerate some shade under the canopy.
Songbirds are among the smallest birds in size and are often named after their colorful plumage. The 2 songbirds in the park are the brown thrasher (Georgia’s State Bird) and the red-winged blackbird. The brown thrasher has one of the largest song repertoires in North American and can “sing” 3000 distant songs. Red-winged blackbirds can reach speads over 30 mph during migration.
Turtles are probably the oldest life on earth, even before dinosaurs. They live everywhere except the Arctic and Antarctica. While all turtles have a shell, these shells differ in color, design, and amount of protection.
Animals along this trail include deer, owls, and raccoons. But . . . no alligators!
Raccoons move around at night and will eat anything. Opossums are the largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere. They also move around at night and will eat anything. What was new to us when they feel threatened is that they can mimic the smell of a dead animal as well as the look of a dead animal.
Georgia is home to a variety of snakes, but only 6 are venomous.
Of all the wild species of in the United States, 14 species are true rabbits. Only 4 species are native to Georgia: Eastern cottontail, swamp rabbit, marsh rabbit, and Appalachian Cottontail.
North America’s largest rodent, the American beaver can live on land and in the water. Their dams can stabilize water levels to protect their home and allow access to food.
Herptiles are a combination of reptiles and amphibians: frogs/toads and salamanders/lizards. Toads usually have shorter legs than frogs; frogs leap while toads hop; toads have dry, bumpy warty skin while frogs have smooth skins. A salamander is an amphibian with smooth, moist skin that depends on water. A lizard is a reptile with dry skin, long toes for climbing, and is nearly independent of having to live near water.
As we walked along the path to a gazebo overlooking the lake, we saw this thick vine with the nasty thorns. Glad we didn’t have to walk through these plants.
As we were walking up to the gazebo where we got this view, we heard some loud, fun music. Across the water is Will-A-Way recreation area that was built for special needs groups. At noon the music died down, probably because they were eating lunch.
3 invasive plants not native to Georgia are in the park: kudzu (introduced in American from Japan in 1876 as an attempt to control erosion). It can grow 1 foot/per day in favorable conditions Cogondgrass (introduced from Asia in the early 1900s). It is unpalatable for livestock. Chinese Privet (introduced as an ornamental shrub in the 1800s. It shades and out-competes native species.
So beautiful in the fall, sugar and red maples can be tapped for sap, which is then boiled to produce maple syrup. Since they carry sound waves well, they are used in numerous musical instruments.
various maple trees
Flowering dogwoods are native to mid and eastern North America. The flowers in spring can be white or pink. Growing under taller trees, they fill out the area so well.
What interested me about this sign was the rate of bio-degradation on the bottom left corner. Here’s the information. What do you want to stop using?
paper: 2-5 months
orange peels: 6 months
cigarette butts: 1-12 years
plastic bags: 10-20 years
aluminum cans: 1-80-100 years
plastic 6-pack rings: 450 years
glass bottles: 1 million years
plastic bottles: never
now for a bit of fun
This state park in the city limits also has a miniature golf course. One of the staff in the visitors center loaned us 2 golf balls to use with our own putters. Barney won again, but I got the medal for the Most Improved.
