GEORGIA VETERANS MEMORIAL STATE PARK
Established as a memorial to U.S. veterans, this park features a museum with aircraft, armored vehicles, uniforms, weapons, medals and other items from the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War. An 18-hole golf course and pro shop, along with 8,600-acre Lake Blackshear, make this one of Georgia?s most popular state parks. The Lake Blackshear Resort and Golf Club is a privately operated conference center with 78 lodge rooms, 10 cottages and a restaurant. The SAM Shortline Excursion Train runs through the park on its way from Cordele to Plains, allowing riders to see an antique telephone museum, Habitat for Humanity's Global Village, President Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm and other attractions.
Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park is located near Americus, Cordele and Leesburg
UCCA TRACE TRAIL
Rated easy.
The Yucca Trace Trail is a hiking, biking nature trail which is approximately a mile in length. It features plants and wildlife of the dry ecosystem of the Atlantic Coastal Plain such as cork oak, fox squirrel, prickly pear, Spanish bayonet, red fox, wild strawberry, deer, opossum, brown thrasher, bluebird, blackberries, common persimmon, loblolly pine, slash pine, water oak, shortleaf pine, wild cherry, wild plum, huckleberry and honeysuckle.
Access to the Yucca Trail can be obtained off the main park road right before the Resort or from the campground. Part of this trail winds it way through the disc golf course.
LAKE SHORE TRAIL
Rated easy.
The Lake Shore Trail is a leisurely half-mile hiking, biking nature trail winding along the shores of Lake Blackshear and Gum Creek. It loops back within view of the SAM Shortline railroad tracks and returns to the start of trail.
It is a wetlands trail which features the plants and wildlife of the wet ecosystem of the lake community such as bald cypress, cypress knees, wax myrtle, red maple, sparkleberry, sweetgum, alligator, beaver, great blue heron, red-headed woodpecker, wood duck, coot, jasmine, alder, mistletoe and pond turtles.
Access to the Lake Shore Trail is across the street from the park Visitor Center, right at the bridge, beyond the fishing pier and picnic shelter.
Located 9 miles west of I-75 (exit #101) near Cordele on U.S. Hwy. 280.