Sweet (water) Dreams in Sour Times - Georgia and Florida State Parks, Vol 2

there are places so close to the clank of the city and it feels like you're hours away, and the water flows fast and loud over a cusp of limestone you forgot was there, and it fills you with its peaceful and primal energy at a time when you're stuck in the muck of a slow sad summer.
Sweet(water) dreams are made of this.





(Lindsey sits on a rock below the mill ruin)








Sweetwater Creek State Park is a large park,
so it's easy to find a place for yourself, even along the river at its rapids. Several others have already written about this place from a historical perspective, and the story of the Mill and its destruction in the Civil War, and its skeletal ruin, is central to the park's notoriety. It is understood why the mill and its industry were here in the first place - the same wild energy that empowers ____ at so many waterfalls...

... and the in-between-ness of the Brevard Fault that it crosses. The same that crosses Nickajack Creek at Ruff's Mill near Concord Rd. in Cobb County and probably Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee at Lake Lanier and Tallulah Gorge ninety miles northeast!

...not to mention a large lake just above the mill and rapids, and a forest full of wildlife, a mix of North Georgia and the Piedmont. I found some deer to be helpful guides when nearly lost on my first trip this month, while cute frogs and toads found Eelnyl, Linds, and I picnicking on the rocks this past weekend.


Both trips, I arrived melancholy, and left wired and inspired.


(and splattering my friends with Jungian slips about Rising Fawns and such, like a Pollock painting)


for more info on Sweetwater Creek State Park, Lithia Springs, GA:
http://www.gastateparks.org/net/content/go.aspx?s=80.0.0.5




-Arianna, R. F.

Georgia and Florida State Parks - part 1

Georgia and Florida State Parks - part 1 I am now an unofficial spokesperson for the Georgia State Parks and Florida State Parks, and will show the splendor and beauty of these amazing places through photo and video I have taken over the past year. Enjoy the wonders that nature has provided us, and travel safely and with an open mind and heart! Arianna ETOWAH INDIAN MOUNDS HISTORIC SITE, CARTERSVILLE, GA. One of several communities in Georgia where the Mississipian moundbuilding culture once thrived, prior to European settlement. Panola Mountain State Park in nearby Stockbridge/Lithonia, GA. Suburban development has been happening all around this pretty little spot just southeast of Atlanta. There is a granite outcrop similar to Stone Mountain and Arabia Mountain, as well as a preserved woodland area with many Piedmont-native plants, including some once-burnt pine trees. (photo: Billy Gilbert) Cloudland Canyon State Park, Rising Fawn, GA. This is the first waterfall at the bottom of the canyon. I was here at Sunset and it was a spiritual experience. The park is on the Tennessee Valley side of Lookout Moutain, which is a long ridge going from Chattanooga, through Georgia, into Alabama. Rock outcroppings here are shades of reds and greys over two creeks that join to create a canyon 1000 feet deep. TALLULAH GORGE SP, Tallulah Falls, GA Another amazing canyon, this one is more well-known and right beside a major road to North Carolina in the NE corner of the state. It used to be several waterfalls until Georgia Power dammed the Tallulah River, but still totally beautiful! VOGEL State Park, between Blood Mountain and Blairsville, GA Lake TRAHLYTA, the main feature of this park, is named for the woman who lived and bathed on the other side of the mountain (actually in a spring on the next mountain), but who cares when you're now in the company of Sidney Lanier and Nancy Hart? AMICALOLA FALLS SP, between Dawsonville and Dahlonega, GA I visited Georgia's tallest waterfall the same day as Vogel, and I would describe this place as a total release of energies. water comes through rock in shapes that reflect emotion, this one a microcosm of the moment. FORT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, near Chatsworth, GA a curious wall of stones meanders for almost 1000 feet near the top of this mountain, which you get to on a road that rises about 1000 feet in 8 miles from the valley. the wall of stones was built more than 1000 years ago... PROVIDENCE CANYON and FLORENCE MARINA, in the lower Chattahoochee Valley south of Columbus, GA "white chalk sat against time" -PJ Harvey All photos by Arianna Sykes unless otherwise noted!!! more coming soon...