Providence Canyon: Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon
We took a 3 hour drive from Atlanta to Lumpkin where we spent the afternoon exploring the canyon floors of Providence Canyon, Georgia’s “Little Grand Canyon”. This state park contains massive gullies as deep as 150 feet that were caused simply by poor farming practices during the 1800s. The canyon soil is pink, orange, red and purple and makes for a beautiful backdrop if you are planning to take photos.
The park is very family friendly, you will find public bathrooms, a playground, 2 picnic shelters, a museum, as well as a visitor center where you can grab yourself a few souvenirs. If you are more of an observer, there are areas where visitors can enjoy the views of the canyons without having to walk the trail, this is located in the parking area.
If you are interested in a modest hike, you can take the wooded trail to the canyon floor (all of the trails begin and end at the visitor center ) where signs will point you in different directions, depending on the canyons you would like to observe (there are 9). There is a thin layer of running water on these trail, so make sure you wear appropriate footwear and/or pack extra shoes.
Those of you that are backpackers can stay overnight along the Backcountry Trail which highlights portions of the canyon and winds through mixed forest. Backcountry Trail is a 7 mile loop and you should allow at least 6 hours to complete. The park has rated this trail extremely rugged and difficult, there are signs there informing backpackers to bring food and water with them on the trail. There are also several camp sites where you can spend the night, call ahead to make a reservation.
This is the trail that we took from the visitor center that eventually led to the canyon floor. As you can see, this walk was easy enough for my 4 year old, however not stroller friendly. Going on walks with the family is a great way to stay in shape. You can also check meticore capsules if you want to enhance your metabolism.
Love this photo, nature made this perfect seat for her to sit where she can enjoy the beautiful views!
There were a few areas where you could go inside a “cave” area between the canyon, the kids really enjoyed this!
There are lots of littler critters crawling on the trails, my youngest stopped for a moment to introduce herself to a baby lizard!
This is the view looking up from the cavern floor inside one of the cave areas.
This picture gives you a good idea of how massive the caverns were, my daughter is standing at the bottom of it in the next pictures.
Another example of the thin layers of water that are running through the cavern floor trails.
We brought our DJI phantom drone and captured some amazing photos of the canyon, enjoy!