Tugaloo State Park

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite shots from this past Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I spent it with family at Tugaloo State Park in Lavonia, GA, which is on Lake Hartwell (link opens up right on the cabins we stayed in).

Due to a drought, the shore of the lake was quite receded, which made for some cool photo opportunities. The photo above is taken from the receded shores of the lake and you can see where the water level used to be – all of the docks are sitting on the dried up lake bed. You’ll want to view it bigger to see the scale of the shot with my son playing with his toy sword in the bottom corner.

In the early morning fog, I was able to isolate these branches against a foggy sky in the photo above. It was so thick on the lake that visibility was a real issue. I’m not sure how it happened, but one inlet was filled with tree stumps. As the sun rose and the fog lifted, I was able to get some shots like this:

The sky was so clear at night that you could see the Milky Way above the water. I made this shot by painting the barren tree branches above with an LED flashlight:

Here’s a young boy fishing in the lake. I don’t think the fishing at the shore was very good, but I did see a guy out in a Jon Boat capture a pretty sizable looking fish.

We took a day trip out to Helen, GA and passed by the Nacoochee Indian Mound where it is said that a ceremonial Cherokee sacred fire burned unceasingly.

I have a ton of photos over on Flickr (mostly of the family variety). I just wanted to share some of my faves from the trip. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!