Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail

Our second trip of 2012 was to the Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail in Chickamauga, GA. A co-worker told me that it was spectacular during peak wildflower season. I'm not sure if we visited at "peak", but it was gorgeous! We took a picnic lunch, and the boys enjoyed looking for the different wildflowers listed at the entrance. It was about a 45 minutes from Chattanooga, but well worth the drive.

The trail is a boardwalk, and aside from the gravel parking area, it would be great for strollers and wheelchairs. The entire trail is less than 1/2 mile. There was an additional trail at the end of the boardwalk that I believe takes you to a waterfall as shown here, but we didn't make it to the falls with the three kids. The ground was wet and they were slipping and sliding everywhere. If you want to go to the falls, be sure to wear sturdy shoes (kids in crocs just weren't working for us).

Here is a map of the Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management area. If you put Pocket Rd, Chickamauga, GA 30707 in your GPS, it will take you right there. Just continue along Pocket Rd (it turns to gravel) until you reach the parking area. We were in a 4-wheel drive, but there were sedans in the parking lot as well. When we reached the Wildlife Management Area we were greeted with a sign stating that effective January 1, 2012 you need a Georgia Outdoor Recreational Pass (GORP) to use any of the 32 wildlife management areas in GA. You can purchase your pass here. (Prices range from Individual 3-Day Pass for 3.50 to small group annual pass for $35.00)

Shamrock City

On March 17, we traveled to Lookout Mountain, GA to see Rock City transform into Shamrock City during their annual St. Patrick's Day celebration. We had purchased Annual Passes when we visited Rock City during the Enchanted Garden of Lights holiday display this past December. Rock City was beautiful this March. We have had such warm weather that most trees are past the blooming stage and are already green. Speaking of green, Rock City turns the High Falls green for this event. The kids had a blast. We were able to listen to some Irish music, as well as hear the Chattanooga Bagpipe Band. They also had green wine and beer tastings at the event. We finished the event with a great Reuben sandwich at the Big Rock Grill inside Rock City.

Close to Home Adventures

We are a family of 5 that moved to the Greater Chattanooga TN area almost one year ago. After taking some time to get settled, we decided to embrace the main reason we packed up our family and moved to the 'Noog: TONS of things for the family to do. So, in 2012, we plan to blog about our adventures. Hopefully we can help others discover some great things about this area as we explore!