Photo Hike - Ocmulgee Heritage Trail & Cherry Blossom Festival

Photo Hike: This hike will be geared toward the hiker that wants to balance exercise with the chance to enjoy the scenery. We'll take a moderate pace and allow for breaks at scenic spots. Photographers of all levels and abilities are welcome. Please bring your point and shoot camera, SLR, or other favorite camera.

The trail, monument, and festival area are all next to each other. The total hiking distance is 8 miles with some additional exploring around the festival grounds. Since this is an exploritory hike, you should estimate about 10 miles of total distance. We will hike to all three spots and, as we drive home, will visit a couple of choice spots along the Cherry Blossom path.

The Ocmulgee Heritage Trail is the only riverside trail and park system in Middle Georgia. The Trail is first and foremost a recreational resource providing an exceptional environment for walking, biking, boating, bird watching and many other activities. Easily accessible from Interstates 16 and 75 and downtown Macon, the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail provides a peaceful respite from the bustle of urban life.

Ocmulgee National Monument is a memorial to the relationship of people and natural resources in this corner of North America. It preserves a continuous record of human life in the Southeast from the earliest times to the present, there is evidence here of 17,000 years of human habitation. Included in the park is an earthlodge and early Mississippian temple mounds, a wetlands environment, a wilderness of the Ocmulgee River floodplain, Georgia's "Fall Line" environment,

Each March, Macon becomes a pink cotton-spun paradise of delight as over 300,000 Yoshino cherry trees bloom in all their glory. And for 10 days, festival-lovers are treated to one of the most extravagant displays of springtime color in the nation as they visit the town referred to by Congressional Records as the Cherry Blossom Capital of the World.

DIRECTIONS FROM ATLANTA-

Drive south on I-75 to Macon. Exit I-75 onto I-16 east (exit on left) . Get off I-16 at exit 2 (Coliseum Drive), take a left under the highway and proceed to where Coliseum Dr. ends at Emery Highway. Turn right on Emery Highway and proceed to the third light. Our entrance is on the right side of the road.