[part 1 of my 'trip to sougahoagdee falls' outing]
I set out a bit later than planned, around 9:30am. Taking CR 63 south to Grayson, I missed the church, which is the New Hope Baptist Church, for future reference. After about 6 miles I came upon a place called the Natural Bridge Recreation/Picnic Area. Met some nice folks there, and the father was happy to get the chance to use his car's GPS unit he got for Christmas. He was able to give me directions back to the intersection of CR 63 and CR 3159/FR 255/Hickory Grove Rd.
Instead of heading out, I scouted out the paved walkway, which is about .75 miles in length, a loop trail. Several wildflowers were in bloom, as were *
Oakleaf* and Annabelle Hydrangeas, Spiderwort, as well as Heuchera and *
wild Phlox*. Heading downhill, the trail splits. The trail on the left leads you to the top with an overlook that's probably nice in winter, but with the foliage up you can't see much of the bridge itself. The trail on the right leads you another hundred yards or so to the *
bridge*. I'm sure a seasonal waterfall exists behind the bridge, as there was enough drip coming off the back rock face. My camera couldn't quite pick it up, though. There's a photogenic tree inbetween the bridge and the rock face, but every shot I took turned out blurry unfortunately. I loved the curves in the trunk. There's also a variety of mosses and ferns growing underneath, but the lighting was tricky, and I didn't manage to shoot what I wanted. Leaving the natural bridge, the loop takes you back uphill, a rock face on your left [with another seasonal waterfall], and a view down into into the forest on the right. I found *
this interesting design* in the rocks along the way. The trail then switches you back and you walk along the ridgeline where *
benches* have been installed here and there. It'd be a great place to get away for a secluded picnic lunch. Outside of the small spring that was bubbling from beneath the natural bridge, there is no water available here. There are two open pit toilets, though, and I'll assume they didn't have running water faucets inside.
I created a small photo gallery for it, 22 photos in all, *
located here* if anyone would like to see.
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edit: the link color is hard to see against the background message body color, so I added some asterisks to denote those.
