Stop #1- Providence Canyon, GA

Day 1:

Stop number one on my US road trip was definitely a fun one! Wednesday morning, after a measly 4 hours of sleep, I rolled out of bed, threw the last-minute things in my car, told mom, dad, and Brees bye, and hit the road, stopping first for a Vietnamese Iced Coffee from my favorite coffee shop, Zuhause. Just 15 minutes into the drive, there was an 18-wheeler that broke down in the middle of the road and held up traffic for about 20 minutes. Not a great way to start a 9-hour drive… Thankfully, after that, there were no more road issues.

I made it to Rood Creek Campsite around 5pm to meet up with one of my best friends from college. It had probably been almost three years since Brianna and I had hung out and it was so great to see her! We were absolutely in love with our campsite. Not only was it free, right on a beautiful lake, and had great hammock trees, but about a half a mile from the entrance was a massive, gorgeous sunflower field! Of course, the first thing we did was head out there to have a photo shoot!

After that, we got camp set up and cooked a gourmet box of Frozen shapes Craft mac n’ cheese complete with basil flakes and Italian seasoning. For dessert, we treated ourselves to grape Uncrustables.

We attempted to make a fire, but there were no thick pieces of wood available, so it was pretty unsustainable. However, we were able to nurse it for long enough to make us each one s’more. After the death of our sad, but perky little fire, we laid out to look at the stars and watched one of the absolute most beautiful moon rises I’ve ever seen in my life. It was bright and orange and massive and was framed by moving dark clouds, giving it an eerie feel. After a good first day, we called it a night around midnight.

Day 2:

The next morning, we woke to the sun rising over the water. We had a pretty relaxing morning, eating a nice breakfast of yogurt, fruit, granola, and mini chocolate chip muffins. We headed out of camp around 9 for the short fifteen-minute drive to Providence Canyon. We paid the small park fee of $5, grabbed a map, and hit the trails. The beginning of the hike was downhill to the base of the canyons, then shot off three different directions, one leading to the strenuous 7-mile hike, one leading to the bases of all the canyons, and one leading to the perimeter trail above the canyons.

We decided to start below and check out all the canyons and then finish with the views from above. It was a pretty easy walk to all the canyons, with small trails branching off periodically to get a closer look. Not gonna lie, it was a bit underwhelming. Like the structures were cool to see, but nothing too crazy exciting. We explored all the canyons for a bit then headed back to hike up to the rim trail.

In the middle of the trial, there were old cars from the 50’s that were left there after the old homestead was abandoned. Hiking along this trail, we were definitely hoping for some great views of the canyon, but honestly, all of best overlooks were closed off, and most of the lookout platforms were blocked by trees. It wasn’t until we passed the cemetery and were closer to the Visitor’s Center that we finally found good views of the canyon. It honestly was incredibly beautiful and it was crazy to imagine that this whole place started just as a couple 5-foot ditches that eventually got eroded into what they are today.

Once we returned to the parking lot, we were a little disappointed to realize that we had done basically everything there was to do. We were hoping to hike a bit more, but we were also not prepared for the strenuous 7-mile trek. All in all, the park was a little disappointing. It was definitely a cool place to see, but I wouldn’t suggest driving more than 30 minutes out of your way to see it. So, after our hike we left and decided to see what else the area had to offer.

We drove the short drive to Lumpkin, GA to sadly find that it was basically a ghost town. There were a few antique shops and book shops that we would have loved to explore, but sadly were all closed. However, we made the best of it and walked around the square, took a picture with the beautiful Lumpkin mural, then headed out.

We had seen a sign earlier for Omaha Brewing Company and both agreed that a nice cold beer and some food would be great at that time. Wow, this place was so cool! It was a little local brewery in the middle of nowhere, but was full of board games, a nice patio, yard games, pool tables, a store, a stage for live music and a super friendly staff! Brianna and I ended up staying here for over two hours just enjoying the atmosphere and taking turns beating each other at Sorry!, Battleship, and Scattergories.

After our afternoon of games, we headed back to camp to make some food since we both hadn’t eaten much that day (the brewery sadly didn’t have any food). As we were hanging out, the campground host was just driving around and he told us that one of the better sites just up the road right on the water had opened up and we were welcome to claim it if we wanted. We scoped it out and decided that it would definitely be worth it to change sites.  

After getting camp set back up, we just chilled by the water and gathered firewood to hopefully have a more successful fire than the night before. Sadly, however, as soon as we were done with our collection, a rainstorm came out of nowhere and soaked all our precious dry wood. The rain annoyingly left as quick as it came, but left us with a wet tent and no usable firewood. We ended up just talking and hanging out by the water until around 11 then called it a night.

Day 3:

Since we had basically seen the whole Providence Canyon park, we decided to change up the plan a bit and explore the city of Columbus, Georgia. We woke up around 7, had a small breakfast, packed up camp, then hit the road. It was only about a 1-hour drive north. We arrived around 9AM, so most places were still closed. We drove around to do some mural hunting and then walked down to the river walk. From there, we headed over to Fountain City Coffee shop for some fuel and to use their wifi to figure out where I was going to stay that night.

Around noon, we headed a little out of downtown to the Columbus Museum. It was a history and art museum and we genuinely enjoyed it. There were lots of exhibits, lots of things to see, and best of all, it was free (unless you wanted to leave a donation, which we did). It was around 2 by the time we finished, and Brianna had a 5-hour drive ahead of her and she had to work early in the morning, so we said goodbye and I started my drive up north.

Stop number 1 of my road trip was definitely a success and I am looking forward to so many more adventures on the road! Tonight, I will be speindng the night in northern Georgia, then heading up to Tennessee for a few days! To stay up to date with all my blog posts and YouTube videos, make sure to subscribe by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of this page and entering your email. Thanks for reading and remember to make every day an adventure!