Coastal Georgia

I just finished a grand 2-day tour of some of the coastal areas of Georgia from Savannah down to a bit below Brunswick.  I've never been to these areas before and they were very lovely to see.  Of course it was the Georgia Geocaching Challenge that once again gave me the impetus to get my butt out to see and experience new things!  A few highlights of the adventure:

 

OK... you're not supposed to be taking pictures while driving down the interstate at 75 mph but I was alone, afterall, and I had to get a shot of this.  It's not the first time I've seen it but it is the first time I got a shot of it... miles and miles and miles and miles of wildflowers growing in the median area of the highway.  I've seen this in lower NC as well and with some frequency in GA.  It's really magnificent and efficient for the state... you don't have to mow the areas!  Anyway, it's beautiful.

 

The first stop after the drive over... Wormsloe State Historic Site.  The little office is just to the right of this shot and that's where I parked.  I had to get a shot of this entryway!  All the architectural 'splendors' being built today and exactly none of them can hold a stick to this.

This entryway was long... very long... so I took another shot as I was driving though it.  This time I was doing less than 10 mph though.  These huge, moss-draped oaks are all over this region and they're all magnificent.

 

My first visit to a coastal park.  This is Skidaway Island.

 

And so is this.

 

Walking through these coastal parks was really something else.  This is actually the 'path' I was following to get to the cache.  Kind of looks like Jurrasic Park to me.  I do not think I would like wandering through this stuff on a summer day.  As it was, after a somewhat chilly morning, it was a glorious day of about 70 degrees... perfect!

Ground Zero... the cache lies beneath this collection of moss and palm fronds.  Really, really liked these places.

 

One of the historic sites visited was Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation.  Learned a lot here.  This was a rice plantation, not cotton.  It's a very large site and while searching for the answers to the questions to get the combination to open the cache box I saw, and learned, a good deal.  Of course I couldn't stop being overwhelmed by the oak trees.  I mean these suckers were HUGE!  Pictures are pretty much worthless in trying to capture the grandeur but this one definitely got my attention.  Nothing like getting shade by having an oak tree dwarf your house :)

I don't know if this was the biggest one I saw or not... doesn't really matter.  If you click on the photo you should be able to see that there is a bench under this one.  Perhaps a vain attempt to try to add some perspective to the size of this tree.

 

It was a wonderful little trip with many areas found that I intend to get back to.  Two state parks and six historic sites visited and every one of them a fun and great experience.  One of the parks visited late on the second day is smack in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp and I've never walked through/over a swamp before.  Very interesting but I did manage to pretty much run out of sunlight by the time I came back from finding the cache.  Got home late after a 701 mile trip through parts of the state, and the country, I'd not seen before.  I am loving this :)