Mark's Photo Travels

Last Friday featured mild temperatures and low humidity, a perfect day during August to visit the Blue Wall Preserve . The Blue Wall Preserve is a 575 acre nature preserve owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy  located in northeast Greenville County off Pennell Road a few miles west of Lake Lanier. The preserve, acquired in 1997, also serves as an access point to the Blue Wall Passage of the Palmetto Trail , a trail through the preserve up to Vaughn's Gap that opened in 1999 . The parking area for the preserve is on Pennell Road at approximately 35.184556, -82.248266 . I found I had the place all to myself: I walked around the bright yellow gate down the old road: The pavement ends near the bridge crossing over Vaughn Creek: The bridge could definitely use some work. Be careful: The road beyond the bridge is gravel and dirt: A lovely sign sits near of another gate. One side was obscured by high weeds, and the other side was backlit. I did m

I had planned on visiting the top of Table Rock Mountain this fall when it was cooler and less humid, but when I found out a Meetup.com group was planning on going up there this past Sunday , and since I was available, I made plans to attend the meetup. Three of us (out of seven at one time) ended up going, Helen (the organizer), Victor, and myself (duh!). The hike was scheduled to start at 8:30am, which is too early for this night owl, but I made it up to the Nature Center right on time. The three of us waited until 8:45am for any others that might show up, and when they didn't we began the journey. Table Rock Trail is 3.6 miles long, blazed red, very strenuous at times, and its uphill almost all the way up to the trail's end at the Table Rock Reservoir overlook. For a more detailed description of the hike itself, you will want to read this more detailed trip report blog post by Jeff Clark (read it after you finish reading this one, of course). I didn't take any