Georgia Veterans State Park, Cordele, Georgia
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. ~ John 20:29b
I know. The ‘front yard’ looks much nicer!
Providence: Provision. The theme of God’s providence runs throughout the Bible. God is seen not only as the Creator, but as the One who plans for, cares for, and guides His creation. He knows the needs of His creation and provides for those needs.
We visited Providence Canyon State Park in Lumpkin, Georgia today. Known as the Little Grand Canyon of Georgia, it was spectacular! Especially given the flatland we’ve enjoyed in recent months.
Lumpkin, incorporated March 30, 1829, is the county seat for Stewart County. The city honors Wilson Lumpkin, a two-term governor of Georgia, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. He was a leading advocate of state rights and “Indian Removal.” ~ from georgia.gov
Here’s the proof! : )
Pretty!
I think it’s supposed to demonstrate the layers found here.
It was at the Visitor Center.
We began our time at the Park by digging out our hiking boots from the back of the Jeep. I don’t know if you remember, but months ago I had to purchase new boots because my old ones had developed a few holes from years and years and miles and miles of use. I hadn’t been willing to part with the old ones yet, until I had the new ones broken in some. Something about hiking 5-10 miles in new boots just didn’t appeal to me, so I wanted to break them in on short hikes first. Anyway, when we got our boots out, lo and behold, I had an old boot and a new one. And that’s it. And they were both left feet! I’ve heard of people with two left feet, but I’m not one of those people. Let’s just say, it’s a really good thing I decided at the last minute to wear my sneakers instead of sandals when we left home this morning!
And it’s good we had our hiking poles with us, too. I especially used mine a lot, since I was stretching and leaping over water a lot today in an effort to keep my canvas, breathable sneakers as dry as possible. Early on, we discovered that most of the trails on the canyon floor were really just water run-off streams, although we never saw a source of water, and the top of the canyon was dry. It puzzled us a bit, but then, as I was doing some last-minute research before I wrote this post, I discovered the source of the water!
Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon” is a testament to the power of man’s influence on the land. Massive gullies as deep as 150 feet were caused simply by poor farming practices during the 1800s, yet today they make some of the prettiest photographs within the state. Visitors can enjoy views of the canyons from the rim trail, taking care to stay behind fences and off the fragile canyon edge. Hikers who explore the deepest canyons will usually find a thin layer of water along the trail, indication of the water table below. ~ taken from gastateparks.org
But I managed. And Blaine had to either hike more slowly or wait on me. So what else is new? At least this time I had a good excuse. 😊
And the above begs the question – – if this water is seeping up from underground, how long before all this becomes a ginormous lake? (and surprisingly, ‘ginormous’ is actually a word!)
1-3 are up this trail, then we had to back-track to this point to do 4-5.
and he didn’t think this qualified as ‘the floor’. : (
And just look at all the colors!
The sun hasn’t hit this part yet.
We think what makes this place really special, though are the color variants – reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, browns, whites, grays and even lavender and purple, matched with the greens of the trees and the blues and whites of the sky – What a spectacular color pallet God is working with here!
Even with pictures!
So now that you’ve seen a few pictures, how old do you think this canyon is?
Believe it or not, they believe it’s only about 150 years old! And its deepest point is 150 feet, so that’s an average of one foot every year! At that rate, it really will be another Grand Canyon before long!
They think it all started by rainfall run-off flowing from farmers’ plowed fields. Crazy, huh? One of the pictures I have, talks about how they’ve been known to lose six feet of canyon floor in a single night!
As one woman we briefly spoke with put it – “Isn’t it amazing how God can take man’s mistakes and create something beautiful?” Amen, Sister! And He does the same with our lives all the time!
The hiking trails are laid out like this – the canyon loop (which begins and ends at the Visitor Center and goes around the top of the canyon area and the floor trails (which begin and end at the Visitor Center and spread out like fingers into the eight visitable canyons. These two areas encompass four miles. Then there’s the backcountry trail which is an additional seven miles, which is more strenuous and travels in a large loop. It also begins from the Visitor Center.
When the Park Ranger had given us our map, she pointed to an area and mentioned where there were some old cars. We located the first ones, and thought that was it. But then we kept finding more and more and more! Although I took pictures of all of them, I’ll spare you from looking at all the heaps of rusted metal. 😊
I swear Blaine’s trying to get rid of me . . . .
Can you believe they deem this safe?
We managed the entire total of 12-miles in about 6 ½ hours and that included our 20-30 minute lunch break. Although excited that we (especially me) had been able to complete the anywhere from easy to strenuous treks, before the place closed, we weren’t at our most attractive.
We decided since we still had some time and were in the neighborhood, we’d stop by the Plains High School and see what the National Park had to offer about former President Jimmy Carter.
The National Park encompasses a lot of things in this town. Things like Billy’s gas station, Jimmy’s boyhood home, the peanut farm . . . but we just don’t have the time or the energy to do it today.
And we still needed to find dinner somewhere. We wanted something light, so fast food drive thrus were out of the question. We ended up at a Ruby Tuesday’s because we knew they had a salad bar. I was quick to explain to our server where we’d been and felt obligated to apologize for our appearance. 😊 Dinner was excellent.
