Salaam Springs (aka “The Pond”) is the main only water feature in Atlanta’s Grant Park. It’s not huge and it’s more of a stormwater catchment than a landscaped lake TBH. However, it was re-built & re-landscaped a few years ago with a viewing deck, a working water fountain, and native plants around the edge.
Conasauga River in Georgia’s Cohutta Wilderness, Chattahoochee National Forest
Boiling Springs Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park is exactly what the name says. It’s absolutely fascinating to see. It’s accessed via a short hike up the Warner Valley. Also, the Pacific Crest Trail goes right by it!
I stopped by Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon on my way Crater Lake National Park. First off, they have the loveliest city park. It’s great. Second, they have a small but perfect Japanese Garden (I’m a huge fan of Japanese Gardens). But third, near the Japanese Garden, they have a full-grown Sequoia tree!
On my visit to Redwood National Park, I learned that Redwoods generally grow in a grove around a “mother tree” – so you’ll often get this cluster of tall trees around a mega tall tree…or a giant shaded circle where the “mother” used to stand.
One of my favorite parts of flying is getting a true birds-eye view of the pattern of a large metro area. I found Northern California’s land use to be absolutely fascinating.
The Golden Gate Bridge has reached a rare status as a global icon—a distinction few places on Earth will ever achieve.
On my trip to Redwood National Park, I learned that the story isn’t really about the Redwood trees – it’s about the entire ecosystem, which is both under threat and at the center of conservation efforts today.
I took this photo atop Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
In Lassen Volcanic National Park, there is a trail headed up past Drakesbad Guest Ranch to Boiling Springs Lake. It goes through the Warner Valley, which is something out a story book…that has also been recently hit by a wildfire. The creeks, grasses, and trees are all just idyllic even with the burnt up trees.
Sequoia sempervirens, known as the Coast Redwoods of California, are the most majestic & most perfect trees on Earth.
Banana slugs are a hilariously adorable resident of the Pacific Northwest. On my trip to Olympic National Park and Redwood National Park. I was carefully looking for them in their perfect habitat. Never saw one. But then this guy shows up right at our door step in our cottage parking lot near Willow, California.
I first saw “Fantastic Lava Bed” on a map of Lassen Volcanic National Park and was like “ok, that’s a funny name” – but yeah, they totally live up to their name. They are huge, scenic, and quite fantastic!
The Elk Meadow in Redwood National Park was, only a few decades ago, a giant paved lumber yard with trucks, oil spills, giant cranes, warehouses, and piles of felled old-growth Redwood trees. Now, the National Park Service has helped nature along and the land is a fully restored meadow with bubbling creeks and Elk grazing in the distance.
Lake Delanor is a man-made lake at the center of Roosevelt State Park’s cabin & campground area. It connects to the Pine Mountain Trail system and the picnic area. It’s lovely, peaceful, and a perfect setting for cabins & camping.
Driving along I-5 in California, I was taken how seemingly every town was like the world’s producer of some random crop. We drove through a town that produces like 95% of the world’s apricots, another one that does rhubarb, another one that does sunflower seeds. It’s really incredible to see. Also, they all had huge bee boxes along the fields letting the bees do their thing.
I got to see a small Black Bear cub crossing State Highway 96.
On the same trip, I also had a massive male Black Bear dart across the highway in addition to weasels, birds of prey and more. The highway goes through some of the most remote areas that I’ve ever traveled through but still been on a State Highway.
It’s really hard to over-hype Redwood trees. They are the most majestic flora on Earth. And even though they are scattered throughout Northern California, seeing them clustered together in an intact ecosystem is awe inspiring.
The Grant Park Conservancy has been restoring old, abandoned features of Grant Park over the past decade. The Erskine Fountain is a special addition, which really shines with all the blooming lilies (and it’s very close to Zoo Atlanta’s entrance).
Definitely one of the most underrated National Parks. There is not a lot of tourist infrastructure, but my goodness, it is wild, scenic, and alive.
Spring in Georgia brings azalea and dogwood blooms. They never get old.
No filters, no edits. Taken with a Pixel 7a.
Lassen Volcanic National Park was hit pretty hard by the Dixie Fire of 2021. We got to visit in Summer 2025 and saw not only how the land was recovering, but also how much it still impacted the Park after 4 years.
Lassen Volcanic National Park has all the types of volcanoes within its boundaries. It’s really cool! And Cinder Cone is one type that’s a lot more climbable than the others. It’s tough but straightforward. The volcano is also highly symmetrical and surrounded by the Fantastic Lava Beds!
I always imagined the Okefenokee Swamp to be mostly dark, green, cypress forest. It’s not. It’s mostly open “prairie” covered in a couple feet of water. It’s beautiful, haunting, and full of life. But the lack of trees really gives a sense of how big the place is.
At Lassen Volcanic National Park, I was surprised by just how volcanic it was, everywhere. And yes, I know it’s in the name. But I was not expecting lava rock to be everywhere and for all the lakes & springs to have a whiff of sulfur and boiling water to them. It feels like the Earth is genuinely alive & active beneath your feet (which, in fairness, it is..). Boiling Hot Springs Lake in the Warner Valley is a little off the beaten track, but we had it all to ourselves on a summer weekend.
In the Southeast corner of Lassen Volcanic National Park, there are entire square miles of lava beds. They are so perfect and so beautiful in their starkness that they were literally called the “Fantastic Lava Beds”. There’s no hiking across them, but there are several excellent trail around and through them. In fact, the original California Trail goes around it.
I was driving along Georgia Highway 16 in Warren County, and got stopped by a Norfolk Southern train.
On my visit to Crater Lake National Park, I got to explore some of the Park outside of the rim & the eponymous Lake. It had never really occurred to me that…the water in Crater Lake goes somewhere. Like, it never fills up and it also never sinks down. However, it maintains its level via rain / snowfall, evaporation and some seepage into the porous rock at the top.
However, even though no water leaves the caldera, the rim is incredibly steep, incredibly high, and incredibly snowbound. So it’s the source for a lot of creeks. And these creeks all run through volcanic soil, which creates some beautiful, complex canyons all around the Park.
Lassen Volcanic National Park is a park of colors. Blue water cuts through layers of red, orange, and yellow volcanic rock, coursing through green pines under a blue sky.
The Cohutta Wilderness protects some of the oldest land in North America as part of the Ocoee Supergroup.
The Beltline arborteum is an underrated, but seriously appreciated part of the project. In the Spring, I love seeing all the native plants and flowers blooming along the trail. The Westside, with its larger easements, has especially large plantings.
This mountain laurel was growing on a overlook with a perfect dotted pattern on its white petals.
Crater Lake has to be one of America’s most photographed landscapes. But seeing it in person still exceeded the expectations. It has a depth of blue that I couldn’t quite capture – and I don’t think anyone can. It’s also so photogenic that I don’t think it’s possible to take a bad picture of it.
I get a lot of the rhododendrons mixed up but one easier(?) way for me to just to note when it’s flowering. This guy was a particularly hot pink along the trail.
Roses in the neighborhood are the absolute best. Kudos to anyone who plants them along the sidewalk, just far enough to prevent thorns interactions, but close enough to appreciate the color and varietal.
Georgia’s Conasauga River is one of the loveliest rivers I’ve ever seen.
Mistletoe State Park is a underrated little Georgia State Park near Augusta On Clark Hill Lake. It has a nice set of walking trails, walk-in campsites, and a pretty big beach for a State Park.
The Conasauga River Trail is wholly within Georgia’s Cohutta Wilderness. Even though it’s mostly along the river, it also goes up onto saddles between ridgetops, especially at the end.
Mount Shasta is a potentially active stratovolcano in Northern California. I got to see it on the drive from Crater Lake National Park to Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Efforts to bring back the American Chestnut have been slow but steady. And I was surprised to find a planting at none other than the Atlanta History Center! It’s not as old or as established as the ones at Allatoona Dam, but they seem healthy and strong. They are a fun little Easter Egg tucked inconspicuously in the very back of the Center’s property near The Wood Cabin.
It’s always astonishing to me to see fresh water that is coming off granite in forest with no real runoff. Almost all the lakes in Acadia National Park are glacier melt and are shockingly clear.
There are several little DeKay’s Brown Snakes in my backyard that get all huffy after I cut the grass. They have a serious Napoleon Complex like tiny dogs that get wayyy more angry than their size belies.
This dogwood was pushed to the ground by a larger tree, but it stayed rooted and healthy. Now it looks like Dogwood flowers are blooming on the trail.
I absolutely love the marshes along the Georgia coast. It’s amazing how many small creeks and estuaries kind of feed with each other. This one ends up feeding into the Ogeechee River before heading into the Atlantic. Fort McAllister State Park is very underrated. It’s a lovely park with a great campground and lovely cabins.
I absolutely love the Appalachians mountains. They are not soaring, rocky, or iconic. But they are ancient, diverse, and complex. They see a lot of humid air coming off the Gulf of Mexico – but also from their own green, humid forests. This view is from an overlook off the Cohutta mountains with clouds drifting up over the ridges.
Luna moths are so striking, especially when they contrast against an oak tree.
The Okefenokee Swamp is one of the most underestimated landscapes that I’ve ever been to. One part that that is not captured by a photograph is how quiet it can be. On one hand, it can be creepy, but on the other hand, it’s enchanting.
Tallulah Falls State Park is one of Georgia’s best State Parks. The Tallulah Gorge is that deep & that epic. And the bridge across the Gorge is a brilliant & beautiful feature.
I love the pop of purple color that Irises’ bring to the Southern Appalachians.
Little snakes are so hilarious. They all have a Napoleon complex – acting much more aggressively than their venomous cousins. This guy’s head is the size of my fingernail, but he’s not happy about me disturbing his crabgrass habitat. Hopefully, he’ll still be able to eat up cockroaches and flies.
General Coffee State Park is a very underrated state park in rural southeast Georgia.
Bees are such a win-win-win. These hives are in a clearing in Smithgall Woods State Park. They are maintained by Ally Bees Honey (who I highly recommend for local Georgia honey). They pollinate the wildflowers, native plants, and wildlife food plots…all while creating so much extra honey.
George L Smith State Park is small in acreage but dense in nature. The blackwater river (dammed by an old mill) is packed with majestic Bald Cypress. They are a joy to to paddle through – and incredible for birding.
The Okefenokee Swamp is a forbidding place and a place that I could not imagine living in.
Appalachian Balds are a historical mystery. But they are very man-made now. This one is one of my favorites. I’ll gatekeep the exact location (it’s up an old logging road in a Georgia State Park donated by a dedicated conservationist near Cleveland, GA), but it’s maintained by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources as a wildlife clearing. There are views in the winter, but birds and wildlife year-round.
One of my favorite aspects of the culture of the National Park Service is their commitment to the principle that every American is an owner of their National Parks. It’s a beautiful, democratic ideal.
However.
Providence Canyon in Georgia is one of the most curious little areas in Georgia.
Hardman Farm State Historic Site is a very underrated Georgia State Historic Site. The house is this incredible bit of Italianate architecture built right around the Civil War. The entire property is lovely with well-preserved buildings that highlight the rapid economic succession of the Deep South from the antebellum era to the modern era.
The Cohutta Wilderness Trail Volunteers spent a good bit of time in 2025 working on the Hickory Creek Trail. It is one of my favorite trails, but has been hit hard by storms in the last couple of years.
The Allatoona Dam on the Etowah River has some nice hikes with views across a small canyon. In the far distance, through the forest, you can see (ironically) the smokestacks of Plant Bowen, one of the largest coal-fired power plants in North America.
The Red Tailed Hawk that lives in Atlanta’s Grant Park is an absolute Boss. He’s also used to humans and will land incredibly close. In this case, he’s at the basketball courts – themed for the Atlanta Hawks – so I guess he loves a good pun too.
I’m always amazed at how clear Georgia’s rivers run near their headwaters in the Chattahoochee National Forest. The combination of running across rocks and being filtered by forest instead of being silted with erosion is lovely to see.
Fort Morris was an old fort that stood guard in front of Sunbury, one of the oldest European settlements in Georgia. The site is on the Medway River with beautiful views of coastal marshes.
With so many Eastern Hemlocks dying, I’m always on the look out for a really good looking specimen. This one at Hardman Farm State Historic Site is one of the most symmetrical that I’ve ever seen.
Even though they aren’t all Longleaf anymore, I still love the expanse of Loblolly Pines in South Georgia.
Cloudland Canyon is one of Georgia’s most dramatic and interesting geological features.
Most years, I get to run either the full or the half marathon in Atlanta. It usually takes place early in the year, in late February or early March. It’s a great event with a great course, but it’s always funny just being part of such a giant crowd that is out to…run.
The Southern Appalachians are known for their waterfalls. There are tall, famous ones like Duke’s Creek, Amicalola, Ruby, Jack’s, etc but I also love finding smaller ones along an off-trail creek.
In the Cohutta Wilderness, the Jacks and Conasauga Rivers can rise fast after a rain. Due to a bit of poor planning, I woke up one morning to an uncrossable Jacks. Thankfully, this tall and otherwise healthy pine tree had fallen at just the right spot across the river. It provided a useful bridge and a bit of adventure.
I forgot to get the species name of this flower, but one of the most interesting things in the desert exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens is how colorful so many of the plants and flowers in the desert are.
The Georgia Piedmont is filled with so many interesting outcrops. The most famous is Stone Mountain, but they are all up and down the middle part of Georgia.
I’m not going to write too much about Lake Conasauga because I want it to be known enough to where it keeps getting maintenance, visits, and appropriate use without being overrun…because if you know…you know.
The Appalachian Trail in Georgia has a lot of granite overlooks in the mountains but especially on the Appalachian Trail. During winter, you can see a long ways off, and in the summer, they are often the only break in the green tunnel of vegetation.
Fort Morris State Historic Site had a small “children’s history” display that was fun for the family.
Laura S. Walker State Park is a very underrated state park in Georgia. It is in between Waycross and the northern entrance of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Life Refuge. The park has lovely cabins, a great day use area, a beautiful lake, and the landscape is enchanting with pine trees and South Georgia flatwoods.
Snow makes everything look beautiful wen it first falls.
Rice Camp Branch is one of my favorite little creeks running along the Rice Camp trail in the Cohutta Wilderness.
Appalachian Coves are a beautiful, fascinating forest community, no matter the season. In the winter, you can appreciate the sheer height of the Tulip Trees and the passage of light during the day.
I love how beeches hold on to those leaves far past Fall.
Whether you are hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Aprk, the Cohutta Wilderness of Georgia, or the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, you’re probably going to run across some evidence of human civilization, even in deep forest that has been protected for 100+ years.
Waterfalls in the Southern Appalachians are rarely grand and tall. They are mostly stair-stepped and draped rhododendron. But they have a human scale and plant diversity around them that makes them so lovely.
Lake Charlotte is an accidental treasure in the City of Atlanta. It’s a conservation tract right in the middle of a massive industrial area. But the tract is big enough and so dense with mature hardwoods that it’s a scenic oasis in the city. Love it.
The Conasauga River is especially beautiful in late Fall with floating leaves and remnant pops of color from maples and beeches.
Ginkgo trees really are very different. I love how their leaves come in & then drop suddenly. There’s no slowly dropping them over time like oaks – it’s just like “drop!”.
I love seeing direct evidence of wildlife in the forest. This area had lots of evidence of beavers just working hard on their dams.
Forest Service roads are incredibly scenic, especially in the Fall. I’m never surprised at the number of folks slowly cruising,…
The colors in the background are the focus, but the composition is deliberate here. The irony of the southern Appalachians is that it’s hard to photograph the trees, thanks to all the trees.
Belying its name, the Atlanta History Center is mostly gardens & forest with so many nice walks & mature trees.
This pedestrian bridge crosses Northside Drive at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It is one of the most controversial and irksome pieces of infrastructure in the city of Atlanta.
Black Rock Mountain State Park in Georgia has some of the best overlooks in the state. Looking south, you can see far off, almost all the way to Atlanta. And looking north, you can see Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. and into the Tennessee River Basin.
I love the autumn light in Georgia, especially in city parks like Atlanta’s Grant Park.
I got to visit Bunker Hill in Boston. Like so many other historical markers, especially in urban areas, it’s almost surreal to see the the spot that you hear about since childhood.
Red Top Mountain State Parks Beach has been recently renovated. It’s in a nice cove that is protected from boat traffic. It’s quite large with a very scenic area and a large beach area. Definitely a great amenity for a park with lots of trails, lots of cabins, and lots of other amenities.
This spot in Atlanta looks abandoned, industrial, and a bit of a wasteland but it is right at the intersection of MARTA and the Southside Beltline. Hopefully, over the next 20 years, it will become a hub of commercial activity and affordable housing.
The Summer Shade Festival is one of the largest neighborhood festivals in Atlanta. It takes place in Grant Park in August every year. It’s always fun and well attended and very, very hot.
*like, sometimes I publish…a lot :O – though you can pick what categories you want.
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I’m Nate Shivar from Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I love nature, public lands, books, and the old-school Internet.
