Providence Canyon State Park

Lumpkin, GA · Southwest Georgia$$10 per vehicle for parking; annual pass $70

About

Sixteen canyons cut into soft Coastal Plain soil here, their walls banded pink, orange, lavender and white from layers of clay and iron, all of it carved in barely 150 years by rainwater running off badly plowed cotton fields. The rim trail looks down into the gorges, then a path drops to the canyon floor where you wade a thin sheet of spring water past 150-foot sand walls. Come in July and August and the rare plumleaf azalea blooms orange-red along the rim, long after every other azalea in the South has gone quiet.

Highlights

16 colorful erosion canyons up to 150 ft deepCanyon Loop Trail (~3 mi rim + floor)Rare plumleaf azalea blooms July-AugOne of Georgia's Seven Natural WondersWade the spring-fed canyon floor

Getting there

8930 Canyon Road, Lumpkin, GA 31815

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Georgia State Parks

Most people know Georgia's state parks by the mountain ones. This list keeps going south almost to the Florida line, and a couple of the best are down there.