Exploring Chattahoochee Bend State Park

Here in the first days of April we have been getting oriented to our new home for the next several months.  Chattahoochee Bend State Park (CBSP) is a name that is descriptive of the park's location.  Situated alongside the Chattahoochee River, the park encompasses a large horseshoe-shaped "bend" in the river to the southwest of Atlanta, near where the river becomes the border between Georgia and Alabama.

Within the bend and five and a half miles down the river is the park, a total of 2,900 acres.  At the apex of the bend is a haul-out for people paddling the river.  There are platform campsites for an overnight stay in these piney woods that were once part of a managed forest operated by Georgia Pacific or one of its kind.  If you are of a mind to, these back country campsites are available as a hike-in too.  For backpackers it is an easy, flat 5.5 mile walk (one way).

The bend in Chattahoochee Bend State Park

While the "bend" is relatively remote, accessible only by paddling the river or hiking the 5+ miles in, the rest of the park can mostly be gotten to by the comfort of your vehicle.  There are two trail head parking lots, a visitor center, a day use area with picnic tables and grills, a boat ramp, and three campgrounds.

Picnic alongside the Chattahoochee River in CBSP's day use area.

Fourteen miles of trails.  Bring Fido, dogs are welcome, on a leash.

Observation tower at about 1 mile on the 5.5 mile river trail.

Central to the park is the canoeing/kayaking.

But like the month preceding our arrival at CBSP, we have had more rain than sun.  Getting out and exploring the park has been hit and miss.  Sometimes we have just decided we'll have to be wet and do it anyway.  And that is exactly what our son and his girlfriend did one weekend.  It had been raining for days on end, the river was swollen to the point it was touching the bottom limbs of trees lining its banks.  Even the locals seemed to be hunting someplace dry to hang out for awhile.

This turtle had had enough of the drowned woods.

Better traction on pavement.

The park has a full compliment of rental equipment for your float trip.  We got a two-person kayak, paddles and life vests and headed for a boat ramp that was about 10 miles away by road.  Putting in at River Park boat ramp typically gives paddlers about 5 hours of river time to get to the boat ramp in CBSP.

A chilly and wet day in April for a paddle trip down the "Hooch".  We'll leave it to the twenty-somethings, us old folks are going back to our cabin on wheels in the woods and wait for the call to pick them up.

The river was so swollen and cold that Mom had a little trouble with putting her youngest afloat on it.  It was going to be a long 5 hours for her waiting for that call to come get them.  We cruised on back to the campground, dried off and made a pot of tea.

I guess that we got warm and comfortable because the next thing we knew there was the sound of a phone ringing and it was dark because our eyes were closed.  It was the phone call we had been waiting on but had we really been asleep in our recliners for several hours?  The nap-induced fog in our brains cleared quickly and we realized that it had been just two hours since dropping them off.  Had something gone wrong?  Were they hung up somewhere on the river?  The answer to both was, no.  They were calling from the boat ramp in the park.  We asked if they had put a motor on that kayak but they said that the river was so swift that they never even had to put a paddle in the water until they needed to pull into the ramp.  The water was simply moving that fast.

As the day wore on the rain eased up and the temperature moderated a little.  Might as well hike out to the observation tower and see what it is like.  To get there we take the river trail.  This trail meanders in and out of the woods parallel to the river, crossing several small creeks using really well-built foot bridges.  On our third bridge we stopped in the middle to look up the creek at a what we thought was a jumble of tree limbs and forest litter clogging the creek.  But on closer inspection it became clear that we were looking at a beaver dam.

From this distance it is hard to see, but that is a sizable beaver dam up there.

When things dry out a little better it will be worth the walk to come back here and wade through the brush to see if we can lay an eye on the lodge and estimate how many acres this beaver has flooded.

After slogging our way through the mud to the tower we were disappointed to find it taped off and closed due to a bad section of railing on the first level.  At least it was continuing to clear for our walk back to camp.

The return to camp saw a nearly clear sky and a sun getting low in the west.  With everything soaking wet the added heat almost had everything appearing to be steaming.  Normally that kind of humidity is miserable but today it brought a real treat.

This rainbow was actually down in the woods.
I was standing in the door of the camper and my head was higher than the top of the rainbow.

Nice way to end the day, and a blog post.