Cohutta Wilderness
Chatsworth, GA · North Georgia MountainsFree
The Jacks River Trail goes through the water at least 40 times in 15.7 miles of the Cohutta Wilderness, on the Georgia-Tennessee line. Most of it follows an old logging railroad…
Photo: U.S. National Park Service / Public domain · source
Forests
National Park of American Samoa
About
Around 5,000 people a year make it to this park, 2,600 miles southwest of Hawaii in American Samoa. Its land is leased from the villages. Ask before you photograph people or use a beach, and plan around Sundays, when swimming often isn't allowed and the Old Vatia and Tuafanua trails close at the request of the families whose land they cross. On Tutuila, a short walk from Vatia village on a nearly flat trail, Pola Island rises more than 400 feet straight out of the ocean, and seabirds nest on it. Samoa Airways is the only airline to Ofu and Ta'u, and its flights are often delayed or cancelled. Ofu has no medical care and one lodge, Vaoto, about 20 minutes on foot from the reef off Ofu Beach, where the snorkeling is some of the best in American Samoa; go at mid-tide with your own gear.
Highlights
Only NPS site south of the equatorOfu Beach snorkeling at mid-tidePaleotropical rainforest and fruit batsPola Island near Vatia villageAsk before using village beaches
