Ocmulgee National Monument

What a cool spot this place is! In the heart of the city of Macon, Georgia lies this gem of an archeological site and natural area. It contains Mississippian earth mounds built about 1,000 years ago. We started our visit checking out the exhibits in the very retro visitor center.

We then headed outside to check out the mounds. First though, we visited a Woodland shelter made out of palmetto leaves.

We then made our way over to the Earthlodge.

At one of the wayside exhibits I saw what I originally thought was a large beetle crawling on the grass. It turned out to be a small turtle!

Sierra enjoyed looking at the turtle for a few minutes.

Then we said goodbye to our little friend and went inside the Earthlodge. It was interesting and cool inside,

but a bit cramped and so we quickly made our way back out

and into the sunshine.

As we started to continue on our tour a view opened up across a set of active railroad tracks to Great Temple Mound and the adjacent Lesser Temple Mound.

We continued on and climbed up to the top of Great Temple Mound for a nice view of downtown Macon.

We then headed down into a wetland area nearby.

We saw some water insects and turtles,

as well as an egret wading in the water.

Then our trail veered away from the wetlands onto a trail fringed by yellow flowers.

Soon we headed into the woods. The buckeye trees were in bloom

and we saw a few lilies.

We checked out Southeast Mound

and finished our hike on the  Bartram Trail

with a short road walk under an interesting railroad overpass that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Upon returning to the car, we took a drive over to Funeral Mound to see the only major mound we had missed.

Then it was on to Atlanta and, unfortunately, traffic.