A Daisy Days Preview with Ranger Taylor

With Daisy Days on the horizon, we joined Panola Mountain State Park Assistant Park Manager Taylor Aluko for a preview of what to expect at Panola as the yellow daisies bloom. Panola Mountain’s daisies haven’t started blooming yet – we’re still in the thick of summer – but as Ranger Taylor guided us across the mountain, she talked about the hike and what to expect.

Daisy Days is a Triple Hike, meaning that we guide hikers across Stone, Arabia and Panola Mountains in a single day in a flower-filled hiking extravaganza. Taylor described what Panola would look like in just a couple of weeks, when the Triple Hike happens (Sept. 22). “We don’t have any yellow daisies blooming here just yet,” she said, but “here in the next few weeks will have some. We’ll have a huge abundance of daisies on all three of these monadnocks.” A “monadnock” is the geologic term for these massive rock outcrops that rise above the Georgia landscape, and Daisy Days offers participants the opportunity to see the differences between how humans have interacted with each of the three mountains over time.

The daisy bloom usually begins in early or mid-September; the daisies are in full bloom towards the end of the month. “That’s when we always do our Daisy Days Triple Hike where you can actually hike all three monadnocks and look at all the beautiful yellow daisies we have on our mountains,” said Taylor. Panola Mountain itself, a National Natural Landmark, is carefully protected and accessible only on guided hikes with rangers. Daisy Days gives hikers the opportunity to witness and learn about this truly wild monadnock and then, at the end of a long day of hiking, to enjoy s’mores by a campfire. 

 

Ready to sign up for the Daisy Days Triple Hike? Click here!