We left Hart Springs at 8:45 am for a 4-hour drive to Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Blakely, Georgia and a 1-night stay.
Everything about this departure and drive were SO very different without Bella. Her absence was sharply felt in every single thing we did.
We arrived at Kolomoki Mounds State Park a little bit before 1 pm. We checked in at the Visitor Center and then stopped to climb to the top of Indian Mound “A” before heading to our site.
Kolomoki Mounds State Park is 1,293 acres in size with 2 lakes, a beach, boat ramp, fishing dock, playground and 25 campsites for tents and RVs. But the main attraction is found in their park’s name; there are 8 Indian Mounds within the park boundaries.
Kolomvike (Kolomoki) is one of many sacred American Indian landscapes and one of the oldest mound sites in Georgia. Historians believe the name “Kolomoki” was derived from the 17th/18th century account of the Kolomi people, a Muscogee (Creek) settlement whose town may have been located along Kolomoki Creek in nearby Clay County. In Muscogean, -vike means “group of” or “community.”
This location was one of the largest settlements of its time. When first established over 1,700 years ago, Kolomoki was only visited at certain times of the year by people from nearby settlements for community events and social bonding. But in time it grew to attract people from all along the Gulf Coast and became a permanent community.
It’s amazing to realize that these Indian Mounds were built one basket load of earth at a time. Smaller mounds were built in a single day while others, like Mound “A” that we climbed, took years to complete. Standing at a current height of 57-feet, Mound “A” is the largest Woodland-period platform mound in Eastern North America. But it is also important to note that it was originally much higher, having been worn down by erosion over the centuries.
After we finished our up and down climb of Mound “A” we headed to our campsite. It was a back-in site with water and electric, but we only hooked up the electric since we were just staying for 1 night. And, because it was such a short stay, we didn’t even bother unhitching Nomad from Voyager.
After dinner and watching a couple of TV shows, we called it a night and went to bed. We would have another 4-hour drive the next day to what should be our final stop for the next 6 months. I hope you’ll stay with us for this new chapter.
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