Georgia

Valentines Day Weekend 2025

We spent a long Valentines Day weekend exploring Thomasville GA, staying at a southern plantation, playing a round of golf, enjoying several top-notch meals, and visiting another plantation. Thomasville GA is about 4 hours from home so a reasonable get-away.

Thomasville is home to several historic plantations that offer a glimpse into the region’s past and provide beautiful settings for various events and activities.

One notable plantation is Pebble Hill Plantation. This 3,000-acre property was transformed from a working farm into a winter home and shooting plantation for the Hanna family of Cleveland, Ohio, in the late 1800s. Today, it is a popular destination for visitors, offering tours of the main house and grounds, as well as hosting unique events such as the annual Pebble Hill Polo Classic.

Another prominent plantation is South Eden Plantation (where we stayed). This family-owned and operated estate spans 38 acres and offers a variety of services, including luxury accommodations, wedding venues, and dining events. South Eden Plantation is known for its beautiful historical property and unique events like “Dining Under the Stars” and live music nights.

Downtown Thomasville, Georgia, is a delightful area that captures the essence of small-town charm. The main drag, Broad Street, is paved with bricks and dotted with boutique shops, restaurants, and local businesses like family-owned jewelry shops and even a drugstore that still lets you charge to your house tab.

Downtown Thomasville:

Pebble Hill Plantation:

February 19, 2025 7

2024 Cross Country Trip #11

Palo Duro Canyon State Park – The second largest canyon in the country lies in the heart of the Texas Panhandle. Palo Duro is a canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment. As one of the largest canyons in the United States, it is roughly 25–40 mi long and has an average width of 6 mi, but reaches a width of 20 mi at places. It was formed by millions of years of water erosion by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River and the West Texas wind. With a descent of some 800 feet to the canyon floor and more than 16 miles of paved road, Palo Duro Canyon State Park offers fantastic scenic views, historic sites and markers, miles and miles of hiking and biking trails.

Cloudland Canyon State Park – Located on the western edge of Lookout Mountain, this is one of the most scenic parks in Georgia, offering rugged geology and beautiful vistas. The park straddles a deep gorge cut into the mountain by Sitton Gulch Creek, and elevation differs from 800 to 1,980 feet. The most spectacular view into the canyon is found along the West Rim Loop Trail a 5-mile hike which we took.

High Falls Waterfall – Just north of Cashiers, on the northern banks of Lake Glenville, the West Fork of the Tuckasegee River pours over a 100+ foot cliff, tumbling in a dramatic multi-tiered waterfall and plunging into a boulder-filled pool below. It’s one of North Carolina’s most beautiful falls.

We are now back in Florida and hope you enjoyed traveling with us. We visited 26 states and traversed over 11,000 miles visiting many new sights that we had missed on our 40 earlier trips across country. We still enjoy traveling the red and blue roads rather than Interstate highways. Stealing words from another traveler – keep on traveling – until next time be well.

October 6, 2024 12

April 2022 – pre-Easter trip to Callaway Gardens

On our way to visit family in North Carolina we stopped at Callaway Gardens to see the gardens in their spring bloom. We toured the gardens on bike covering the 10-mile Discovery Bike Trail and walked several of the parks’ nine nature trails. This was our third visit to the gardens, and we enjoyed this season as well as the fall and winter visits. (https://www.callawaygardens.com/the-gardens/)

April 28, 2022 6

Looking Back – YE Travels Ormond Beach to Pasadena #2– Northeast Georgia

Today we toured the hill towns of Blue Ridge, Helen, Ellijay and Dahlonega and hiked the 729 feet, Amicalola Falls the tallest cascading waterfall in the South. The loop trail is 2.1 miles and you must ascend about 600 stairs and a mildly steep quarter-mile incline to reach the top. The climb was well worth the effort, you enjoy an up close perspective of the falls and a stunning view of the mountains at the top of the falls.

Amicalola Falls

April 6, 2020 2

Looking Back – YE Travels Ormond Beach to Pasadena #1– Callaway Gardens

Finally have finished the documenting our year end trip from Florida to Pasadena — the opportunity to finish has been granted by the horrible Coronavirus. I hope this finds you all well and are handling cabin fever as we are. We were hoping to be back in Florida soon but alas the virus has put our home sale on hold and we will be in Pasadena until the market returns. I will be publishing the trip over the next several days — so enjoy.

I have upgraded my blog site and the URL is: peterskucma.photography — if you enjoy the posts please feel free invite others to join.

We are Back in Pasadena after a 3000 mile cross country trip enjoying the sites and roads of this country. Most importantly we were able to spend time with family in North Carolina and Northern California over the holidays. Our first leg was from OB to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain GA.(https://www.callawaygardens.com/). We spent the day touring the gardens and the night at their Fantasy in Lights. Riding by open air tram in the low 30’s was more than invigorating.

The Gardens, Butterfly Center and Aviary

Fantasy in Lights

April 6, 2020 6

Day 2

Early morning hike along the High Shoals Trail passing Blue Hole Falls and ending at Shoals Falls. This 2.4 mile trail was well marked and described at the trail head except for one important point -a bridge over the stream to the falls was out. It was a quick wake-up fording the stream – glad I wasn’t doing it in the spring.

Moving on to Brasstown Bald which is the highest point in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located in northeast Georgia, the mountain is known to the native Cherokee people as Enotah. The bald is 4783 feet above sea level. You could hike from the parking lot to the bald but after doing the High Shoals Trail I opted for the parks shuttle bus — but I did hike down to my car.

My next stop was Anna Ruby Falls. Anna Ruby Falls is a pair of beautiful waterfalls, cascading in tandem through a beautiful slice of North Georgia forest. The twin waterfalls spill from a towering cliff in wispy white tendrils before splashing and pooling over mossy boulders.

The final hike of the day was Dukes Creek Trail a moderate 2 miles out and back through a beautiful, mountain stream-filled forest in Georgia just north of Helen. The trail descends alongside a shallow, mossy stream, hiking to several large, cascading waterfalls that tumble at the convergence of Davis Creek and Dukes Creek. At trails end the main attraction is a multi-tiered, 150-foot-tall drop of Dukes Creek Falls.

High Shoals Trail

Brasstown Bald

Anna Ruby Falls

Dukes Creek Falls

Day 3

Awoke to a light rain so I donned rain gear and headed out. First stop was Helton Creek Falls. Helton Creek Falls cascades in a set of two waterfalls, sliding down a beautiful, hemlock-

filled creek valley. Getting there was half the fun – fording two streams and hoping the Rouge

was going to make it.

The weather went down hills as I headed to Amicalola Falls. Amicalola Falls is a 729-foot waterfall on Amicalola Creek in Dawson County, Georgia. It the highest waterfall in Georgia and is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. The name “Amicalola” is derived from a Cherokee language word meaning “tumbling waters”.

Too bad I didn’t make it — the rains were so heavy I need to pull off the winding mountain roads because the wipe couldn’t clear the windshield. When I arrived at the park the ranger didn’t advise hiking to the falls — so I headed south to Ormond Beach — but is was a fun trip. You can check out Amicalola here:https://www.atlantatrails.com/amicalola-falls

Helton Creek Falls

Trekking in Northern Georgia Day #1

Left Plantation Bay on Sunday and drove to Helen Ga.- my first stop on my Leaf peeping and waterfall hiking trip. Helen was a surprise an Alpine Village in the south. Sunday was their Oktoberfest and the town was packed with swaying revelers. On Monday I started my touring just after sunrise first viewing a small waterfall on the Chattahoochee River then heading through fog shrouded fields to Stovall Mill covered bridge. Then off to my first hike in Tallulah Gorge SP – the park has 6 waterfalls and a trail with 5 view spots. The gorge is over 1000 feet deep and two miles long. My highlight was the 310 steps down the gorge to a swing bridge over Hurricane falls. Not a fan of swinging bridges but it was the only way to get a close look at the falls. I then headed north to Black Rock Mountain SP for the leaf viewing – northern Georgia was near to past peak – many trees were just brown because of limited rainfall this summer. To get a up close view of the colors I hiked the Tennessee Rock trail – a 2.2 mile loop trail first dipping into a gorge the up to and along the eastern continental divide. An overlook point on the trail provided views of mountains in North and South Carolina as well as Tennessee. I ended the day in Young Harris Ga. a few miles from the North Carolina border.

Helen Ga.