TRAVEL
Visiting Georgia’s national parks Some 50 years ago, I set an ambitious lifetime goal for myself — to visit every unit of the National Park Service, 423 of them by the latest count. I wouldn’t just drive through them to gaze at their waterfalls, mountain peaks and other features, but I’d also walk their
list — such as Wrangell — St. Elias National Park in Alaska or the American Samoa National Park. Why go? Mystery writer Nevada Barr, a former park ranger whose novels are set in national parks, summed
Travels with Charlie Veteran Georgia journalist Charles Seabrook has covered native wildlife and environmental issues for decades. For “Travels with Charlie,” he visits and photographs communities throughout the state. trails, canoe their streams, explore their historic structures — even ramble through their visitors’ centers. The park units, of course, are a diverse lot. They range from a few acres to millions of acres in size. They include our familiar national parks such as Yellowstone and the Everglades, but also encompass national monuments, national historic sites, national battlefields, national seashores, national recreation areas and on and on. No matter their title or purpose, though, they’re all referred to as “national parks.” So far, I’ve made it to 336 of them — and, even though I’m now in my late 70s, I still hope to visit all 423. It’s questionable, though, if I ever will ever get to some of the remotest, most farflung parks still on my bucket
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up the feelings of many park lovers in Sierra Club Magazine: “Our parks are the home of our wildness, our pioneer spirit. Seeing them we know we can do much, go far, withstand the harshest punishment. We know we can make it; we can survive
and thrive and flourish.” Not surprisingly, I long ago achieved a part of my ultimate goal — visiting all of the national parks in Georgia. Actually, I’ve visited them several times, but never get tired of them. They are:
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, where in 1863 Union and Confederate forces fought for control of Chattanooga, the “Gateway to the Deep South.”
Kennesaw National Battlefield Park, which preserves a Civil War battlefield of Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta campaign.
Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, whose 14 units stretch like an emerald necklace 48 miles downriver from Buford Dam.
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