Kolomoki Mounds State Park, Blakely, GA
As we got closer to Blakely, in the southwest corner of Georgia, the roads became smaller and less crowded, and the mostly- farming landscape became endless fields of floating balls of white cotton on dried-up-gnarly-looking brush. In the middle of what seems like nowhere, is a small and unpretentious State Park sign for Kolomoki Mounds State Park. Immediately upon turning, the road becomes a little bit wider and a little smoother and there is a feeling of significance and peacefulness in the surrounding landscape. After a few minutes driving down the road to the campground, it felt like we had happened upon a quiet little hideaway tucked away in the tall trees. Kolomoki is home to the largest Woodland-period Indian mounds in the southeast, and the significance of the place is felt soon after you arrive in the park.
Figment pulled into the campground around 3:30pm. While the park is nearly 200 acres, the campground is small, with only 25 sites, all of which have water and 30 amp electrical hookups. All sites have fire rings, picnic tables and grills. A handful of sites sit on the bank of Lake Kolomoki, which we found to be particularly lovely despite the rapidly-dropping temperature. The bath house is centrally-located and very clean and up to date. There is also a washing machine and dryer for a reasonable cost. After a quick walk around our temporary home, we set up camp and enjoyed our travel-day meal of tomato soup and grilled cheese and after a couple of really cold after-dark dog walks around the campground, settled into bed.
It’s 3:39 am and I’m awakened by noise on the roof. The dialogue in my half-asleep head begins. “Is that footsteps? No. Digging? No it’s chewing. A squirrel? No bigger. It definitely bigger. Crap. It is. Maybe it’s a raccoon? Certainly not anything that big. What’s it doing up there? Why would a raccoon chew on a camper? Maybe it’s footsteps afterall. Maybe it’s water droplets being blown off of the tree limbs above. Nope, there’s definitely some chewing going on up there. Wait, there’s more. It sounds like an army of raccoons chowing down on our camper.”
I sit up in bed and knock on the wall. It stops for only a few seconds and starts again. “Ok. That rules out water droplets. No doubt we are dealing with a squirrel. And possibly some of his friends. Fresh late night Dynamax snacks for all!” I bang my hand on the wall of the slide again, this time slightly injuring myself and waking up Richard. The next thing I know, he’s out the door with a broom and a flashlight, digging around in the space above the slide and beneath the awning that protects it. The dogs are up and whisper barking in the muffled way we have trained them to bark and it’s a full-blown family wee-hours-of-the-morning-hysteria. Richard returns to the camper, no more aware of what the problem is, retires the broom and flashlight. We all settle back into our tiny but cozy bed and everyone is snoozing soundly within a few minutes, except me. The dialogue in my head still trying to sort out if it’s tiny footsteps or nibbling that I keep hearing.
The mystery is solved the next morning, when on the first trip to the bath house, I notice the tiny tips of the branches of the small tree that are just grazing the awning above the slide and as the wind blows they flutter and tickle the awning. Funny how your imagination goes to work when you’re in a little box in a strange place in the middle of the night. I’m not saying it couldn’t be an army of raccoons having a mid-night banquet on your camper, but rather that a simple explanation will often be the answer and try to relax and go back to sleep in your little box in the woods.
The park is quiet, and if we saw thirty people during the three days we were there, that would probably be an exaggeration. There’s lots of places to walk and there are three scenic walking/hiking trails. There is a small beach on part of the shore of Lake Kolomoki and canoes, kayaks and paddle boats are available for rent, as well as a couple of very nice playgrounds for kids. We saw the frisbee golf course, which looked really nice and it is said there is also a mini golf, though we did not stumble across it in our venturing. I could see it would be a really nice place for a family to stay for a weeks’ vacation with plenty of stuff to do.
Alas, the main draw of the park is the Indian Mounds. We spent an afternoon hiking around the park to each one of the eight mounds, the largest being the temple mound at 57 feet high, which you can walk up to the top by stairs. It was interesting to walk the land and imagine the Indian life that was once here so very long ago - hunting and gathering, growing and harvesting. The archaeological time stamps on the mounds date back to between 30BC-600AD. In the 1820’s, part of the land was purchased by a family named Mercier, who turned the land into a prosperous plantation until sometime during the Civil War. Supposedly unbeknownst to the family, they placed their family plot in one of the Indian mounds.
Kolomoki is a very nice, well-maintained park. A great place to relax and camp. Our stay was a short 3 days, but I could easily stay here for a week in spring or early summer with plenty to do and plenty of time to relax in a peaceful place.
