Vogel State Park
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| Vogel State Park | |
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| Type | State Park |
| Location | near Blairsville, Georgia |
| Size | 233 acres (0.94 km²) |
| Opened | 1931 |
Vogel State Park is a 233 acres (0.94 km²) state park located at the base of Blood Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest. It became one of the first two parks in Georgia when it founded a state park system in 1931.[1] The land for Vogel was donated to the state. The park features hiking trails, a scenic waterfall, and picturesque Lake Trahlyta.[2]
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[edit] Description
Vogel State Park is located 11 miles south of Blairsville on US Highway 19 in the north Georgia mountains. At nearly 2,500 feet altitude, Vogel State Park usually affords cool temperatures even during summer months.[3] The park is a popular destination, especially during the summer. Vogel features hiking trails, cabins and a 20-acre pond known as Lake Trahlyta, which was created when the Civilian Conservation Corps dammed Wolf Creek and named for a Cherokee maiden who is buried a few miles from the park at Stonepile Gap.[4]
[edit] Facilities and activities
Vogel State Park hosts a variety of outdoor activities, including camping, hiking, backpacking, boating, fishing and swimming. The park includes 103 tent, trailer and RV sites for camping, 18 walk-in campsites, and 35 cottages. Also on site are four picnic shelters and a group camping facility, a pioneer campground and backwoods primative campground areas.[5]
The lake has a swimming beach and boat launch for non-motorized watercraft, and offers seasonal rentals for pedal boats. It contains bass and bream and is stocked periodically during each trout season with about 5,000 trout.[6] Also at the park are a general store and Civilian Conservation Corps museum. The park also offers miniature golf.
[edit] Hiking
The park features several hiking trails, including the moderate difficulty 4 mile-long Bear Hair Trail and the Coosa Backcountry Trail, a somewhat difficult 12.5 mile route leading up Duncan Ridge to Coosa Bald at over 4,000 feet elevation.[7] Access to the Appalachian Trail is from nearby Neel's Gap, just a little higher up Blood Mountain. Access to this portion of the trail is from Byron Herbert Reece Trail. Also nearby is the Duncan Ridge Trail.
[edit] Annual Events
Annual events held at the park include a springtime Wildflower Walk, CCC Reunion, Kids Fishing Rodeo, Independence Day flag-raising ceremony and bicycle parade, Mountain Music and Arts & Craft Festival (held in late summer), Fall Hoedown, and annual Christmas Tree Lighting.
[edit] Wildlife and flora
Like the rest of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, Vogel State Park and the surrounding area consists of many valleys, ridges and mountains formed by repeated plate tectonic movement and collisions, starting with the Grenville Orogeny nearly 1.5 billion years ago.[8] The resulting landscape created diverse topology containing many different species of plants and animal. Much of the area is similar to Pennsylvania in climate, vegetation and wildlife.[9] The lake is near the southern limit for Eastern hemlock and Eastern white pine. Coves in the area vary by elevation and topography, with second-growth oak and hickory more common in lower-lying areas. The surrounding forests contain rich, high-altitude flora including rare wildflowers and ferns, such as Persistent Trillium, which grows near Rhododendron.[10] Nearby boulderfields by Blood Mountain include Dutchman's breeches, squirrel corn, waterleaf and other herbacious plants.
The area is populated with white tail deer, grouse and raccoon. The deer population, which was extirpated by 1895, has rebounded since re-introduction by park ranger Arthur Woody during the 1930s.[11] Over 100 species of birds inhabit or migrate through the area, including native songbirds such as the Canada, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green and Chestnut-sided warblers. Also found are hawks, owls, woodpeckers, kinglets, thrushes, vireos, cuckoos, phoebes, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, brown creepers, wrens, tanagers, grosbeaks, indigo buntings and red crossbills.[12] Migratory species are present during the late spring and early fall, making the area popular among birdwatchers The creeks surrounding the lake are rich with different species of salamanders.[13]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Vogel State Park. NorthGeorgia.com. Golden Ink. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
- ^ Pfitzer (2006), p. 132
- ^ Brown (1996), p. 94
- ^ Vogel State Park. NorthGeorgia.com. Golden Ink. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
- ^ Vogel State Park. Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites. Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
- ^ / accessdate = 2008-02-28 Lake Trahlyta in Union County. BlueRidgeHighlander.com.
- ^ Brown (1996), p. 95
- ^ Alder (1999), pp. 16-17
- ^ Brown (1998), p. 106
- ^ Brown (1998), p. 106
- ^ Brown (1998), p. 106
- ^ See Brown (1999) for additional details
- ^ See Brown (1998) for details on amphibians living around the Blood Mountain, Lake Winfield Scott and Vogel State Park
[edit] References
- Alden, Peter (1999). National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeastern States. New York: Chanticleer Press. ISBN 0-679-44683-4.
- Brown, Fred; Nell Jones (1996). The Georgia Conservancy's Guide to The North Georgia Mountains (3rd ed.). Atlanta, GA: Longstreet Press. ISBN 1-56352-314-0.
- Homan, Tim (2001). The Hiking Trails of North Georgia. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56145-127-2.
- Nutt, Alex (2002). Camping Georgia. Helena, MT: Falcon Press. ISBN 0-7627-1077-2.
- Pfitzer, Donald (2006). Hiking Georgia. Helena, MT: Morris Book Publishing/Falcon. ISBN 0-7627-3642-9.
[edit] External links
