Around Atlanta: Panola Mountain State Park

A gorgeous spring morning in Atlanta deserves an outing! With our new Georgia State Parks pass, we decided to head over to Panola Mountain State Park. Similar to Arabia Mountain, a DeKalb County park, the park features a granite outcrop. Unlike Arabia Mountain, access to the outcrop is limited to guided tours, mostly on the weekend.

We arrived mid-morning, and the park was deserted for the most park. We could see that there are a number of large picnic areas and playground equipment as well as an exercise trail. We parked up by the Nature Center; I only saw three spots there, so I guess on weekends, parking is elsewhere, maybe by the picnic areas?

As the park was so empty, I had expected the nature center to be locked up tight; what a nice surprise to find it was open! The girls had a great time looking at all the exhibits. The ranger explained the open trails, we grabbed some brochures and headed out. The two trails we walked were 3/4 of a mile and 1 and 1/4 miles. Short and sweet. The brochures describing the trails turned out to not only be very informative but also necessary for us to navigate the trails.

Nature Center

One trail took us out to a part of the outcrop; the other took us through the woods and by a stream. Chloe, my little naturalist, was thrilled at spotting lizards, butterflies and even a very large deer running through the woods.

While Arabia Mountain is more accessible — people are free to hike on the granite outcrop — I think the girls got a lot more out of Panola Mountain because of the brochures and marked nature trails. A combination of the two parks is probably the best; thankfully, we live close by and can visit as often as we like (for free).

Running Creek

The ranger told us about a second section of the park that we could reach by car. We drove over to explore a little, but decided to leave it for another day. We saw people fishing and biking on a section of the PATH. Apparently, there is also an archery area as well as the oldest house in DeKalb County.

On the weekends, the park has many activities, including the ranger walks on the outcrop, tree-climbing classes and more.

The girls and I look forwards to returning to explore the many other facets of the park.

Outcrop

Girls on the trail