Wildflower Walk with Naturalist Jerry Hightower and the GA Botanical Society

IN A NUTSHELL:   Most AOCers may be unaware that the Chattahoochee River Nat'l Recreation Area here in Atlanta offers a wide variety of free nature programs that are both highly entertaining and educational .
  Today we'll join our esteemed local National Park Service naturalist, Jerry Hightower, and his fellow "Bot-Soccers" from the GA Botanical Society for a walk through a beautiful hardwood forest amidst native ferns, flowering shrubs, and wildflowers.  We should see an abundance of Mayapple, Trillium, Toothwort, and many other spring wildflowers along with a diversity of ferns and shrubs.  We'll discuss the American Indian and Colonial uses of some of our wonderful native plants.   We'll keep a sharp eye out beautiful migrating birds and paw prints of the many wildlife species that thrive here and perhaps uncover a salamander or two hanging out beneath stones in the creek.  Imagine this area as fields instead of forest as retrace the vestiges of 150-year-old farm roads.
  Don't forget drinking water.  You may also wish to bring your camera, a pair of binoculars and a notepad & pencil.
  Feel free to split at any time during the event if you like, provided you let me know.  It's easy to find your way back to the parking lot.

FREE PARKING!  The usual Nat'l Park Service PARKING FEE is WAIVED TODAY in celebration of National Parks Week.

MORE on the CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER NAT'L RECREATION AREA:  Click on this link: http://www.nps.gov/chat/index.htm

FROM the I-75/ I-285 INTERCHANGE in NW ATLANTA:

1.  Take I-75 North about 2 miles, get off at Exit #261 (a "looping" style exit in south Marietta) and turn Left onto East Delk Road. 
2.  Take Delk Road eastward about 1 mile to its end at Terrell Mill Rd (crossing Powers Ferry Rd en route). 
3.  Turn Left onto Terrell Mill Rd and go about 1 mile, until you reach Paper Mill Rd (at a sudden leftward bend in Terrell Mill). 
4.  Take a sharp Right turn here onto Paper Mill Rd, proceed about one more mile, and look for the Chattahoochee River Nat'l Rec. Area parking lot on your right, where we'll meet.  If you reach the bridge over Sope Creek you've driven about a half mile too far.

FOR GPS or GOOGLE MAPS in conjunction with above directions, enter these Lat/Lon coordinates of the parking lot:  33.9381,-84.4436

NOTE FOR HIKERS DRIVING from ROSWELL, SANDY SPRINGS, ETC:  An alternate route to the Sope Creek CRNRA parking lot is to take Johnson Ferry Road to its junction with Paper Mill Rd (about 0.7 mile N of the Johnson Fy bridge over the Chattahoochee).  Then take Paper Mill Rd westward a bit more than 2 miles to the parking lot on your left (about a half mile beyond the bridge over Sope Creek).

Free event with Free Parking and Park Entrance due to Nat'l Parks Week.