Georgia: Savannah Rapids Park

For the holidays I’ve been/will be doing a bit of traveling in the US outside of Chicago. For Thanksgiving I went to visit some family in Georgia and we went to check out the Savannah Rapids Park. The Augusta Canal is on the Savannah river and it runs along the border of Georgia and South Carolina. To find out more about the area and a brief history we stopped in at the Lockkeepers Lodge which has been changed to the visitors center.

It’s filled with brochures and information of things to do around the area and nearby. It’s open from Monday-Saturday from 10am-4pm and is rather small but it does have some historical information and gifts. There are boat tours that go down the river 8 miles to another exhibit with a Discovery Center that is probably full of more information then the Lockkeepers Lodge had. These tours are on a replica Petersburg boat. It was a bit too cool for the tour so we didn’t go but they offer the tours all year long. After looking around the Lodge we wandered around the park and  the Augusta Canal. The Augusta Canal was built in 1845. Along the bridge to the other side is South Carolina.

On the walk across the bridge over the dam is the Headgates. Along the bridge people place locks and throw their keys in the river. A bit like the Love Lock bridge in Prague. It isn’t as packed with locks as the one in Prague but the bridge is larger and the locks spill onto other bars around the dam.

 

It was a peaceful place to walk around. Dogs are allowed so we brought my aunt and uncles dog with us for the walk. We saw lizards running around on walls soaking up sun and birds. We didn’t see any otters or alligators even though those can sometimes be found in the area.  People were running on the trails, biking, fishing, wandering around and some brought picnics. They offer bike rentals as well as canoe and kayak rentals. It would probably be a lot of fun to take the boat ride, but if you want to just wander around and enjoy nature the park is lovely on its own.