Ocmulgee National Monument

The Ocmulgee National Monument is a prehistoric settlement site dating back 17,000 years, and just a few miles away from our camp in Macon, GA. I was going to take a few hours to go visit the Monument after we had arrived and setup camp, but Kerri found that for only a few evenings a year, they put on a lantern-walk… and that very evening happened to be one of those special days. We showed up just before sunset to visit the Visitor’s Center, then set out for the 1-hour (1 mile) hike into the darkness towards the Greater Temple Mound. Along the way we met volunteers playing the role of people would have lived at, fought at (the site was also a battlefield in the Civil War), or explored the site over its many years.

In the end, it was Kerri’s first time exploring any of the National Park’s at night. I initially agreed that it was my first as well, until I remembered my midnight hike into a volcano in Hawaii.