Georgia's Little Grand Canyon

Most of my weekends have been rainy for the last few weeks. . But by February 27, I thought the rain and clouds would be gone, if I headed east.  I found Providence State Park which advertised itself as Georgia's Little Grand Canyon.  It sounded fun so I set off very early in the morning, hoping to be at the park for sunrise.  The sun and I were both late and I arrived to find clouds and fog.  I decided I didn't want to hike on the wet trails and thought I'd have time to visit nearby Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge before the sun planned to make an appearance. So I took a few pictures to document spring's progress and headed off. I didn't make it back until mid afternoon when I was in bright sunlight and often shooting into the sun.

The new pine cones are growing

The woods are full of white blooming trees and shrubs

Carolina jasmine was at its peak

Another wild fruit tree in bloom

 Providence Canyon consists of 16 canyons. They are growing wider while the bottoms, made of more stable clay and which  also being colonized by pine trees. are holding steady.  The pinnacles are also eroding and disappearing.

 I ended up hiking around the rim before running out of time, energy, and camera battery.  These canyons are the result of poor farming practices about 150 years ago which caused the soils to erode very rapidly, exposing the geologic record of up to 75 million years.

If you would like to learn more about the soils in this canyon, check out this article.