Little Ocmulgee State Park's fine, white sandy beach.

MOULTRIE – Sitting just outside McRae-Helena – two hours away from Colquitt County – is Little Ocmulgee State Park and Lodge, which is where I explored this week. 

Hitting a snag early on, I had to face one of my worst fears — being somewhere I am unfamiliar with without a functioning GPS. 

I assume this happened because I hit a dead zone, but my phone completely stopped working. My podcast stopped playing, the GPS shut down and was only showing me a white grid. When I tried to call my husband the phone calls wouldn’t go through. I couldn’t get anything to work even after doing a hard reset. 

Before I continue there is something about me you need to know. 

I’m a terrible navigator and am extremely directionally challenged. 

Let’s just put it this way, in my driver’s test, you know, when I was 16 and a teenager, I remember using my fingers to tell my left from right at one point; and, I have gotten lost using a GPS more times than I can count. 

OK. So, by this point I was over halfway to the park, somewhere I had never been before with no idea how to correctly proceed forward or turn back without getting lost. 

Y’all, not going to lie. I had a full fledged panic attack on the side of an empty country road with nothing but farms on either side of me with the closest little town well over 10 miles behind me with no idea how far one was in front of me and I hadn’t seen another car in minutes. 

Thankfully, after about 15 minutes my phone worked just enough for me to get Maps to open. I couldn’t submit a destination and have it direct me, but I could at least see the major roads around me. 

So, I zoomed out enough that I could see both where my little blue dot was and where the park was so I could figure out the route I needed to take. 

Because of my job, I always keep several notebooks and writing utensils in my car so I was able to jot down the directions pretty quickly. The hard part would be to not overthink as I was driving and miss a turn.

So, for the first time in probably a decade, I acted like the old days where MapQuest and street signs were the primary navigation provider instead of a GPS. 

I am so proud of myself that I only got lost once. When I drove past the state park entrance I had such a gigantic smile. Honestly, the difficulty I had in getting to the park made exploring it all the more satisfying and worth it. 

As with many other state parks, this one also buds up against a lake. 

Little Ocmulgee Lake is a 265-acre man-made lake constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s. They chose to place the lake around a natural diversion in the Little Ocmulgee River. 

The finished lake was converted into a state park along with the 1,360 acres around it. 

Throughout the generations, this state park has been built up and is now a phenomenal weekend retreat for whatever accommodations a person is searching for. 

Like all state parks there is a campsite, this one with 54 spots shared between pioneer and RV camping.  

There are also 10 rentable cottages lined up on the bank of the lake so those searching for that atmosphere. 

And, for those who want something more traditional, there is the Pete Phillips Lodge and Conference Center. 

The Fairway Restaurant is located in the same parking lot as the lodge and overlooks part of the Wallace Adams Golf Course.  

You don’t have to be staying at the lodge to eat at the Fairway, but it’s recommended to call ahead to reserve a table. 

The other food option at Little Ocmulgee State Park is the Mulligan’s Grille located by the practice green behind the lodge and next to the challenging 18-hole course. As this is designed for a quick bit between rounds, the food is made to share and the drinks prepared with the game of golf in mind. 

Though this park does feature golf, there is still plenty to do for those, like me, who don’t play golf. 

As I tend to, I went straight for the nature trails. 

Little Ocmulgee technically has two nature trails, but really it’s just the short loop trail, which is 1.7 miles, sharing the path of the larger loop of Oak Ridge Trail at 2.3 miles. 

Both trails walk along the northern side of the lake and are unencumbered by the park itself. 

It’s really quite peaceful to be alone on the trail and immerse yourself in the 5 senses of nature. 

I get that I am like a puppy who needs its daily walk or they go crazy, and not everyone will want to walk to nature trails as excited as I always am. 

Don’t worry, there is still plenty left to do. 

This park offers a lot of the same amenities as other parks such as playgrounds, beach volleyball courts, fishing, boating and picnicking.

But, it also offers 2.5 unique items. 

The one is that from Memorial Day through Labor Day there is a fairly large splash pad that is available for families to enjoy. This would give a nice refreshing break from the heat and give an endless amount of fun to the little ones.

The second is that there is a fish cleaning station by the boat dock.   

The .5 is because of the Thaxton Beach, named after Henry Frank Thaxton, who lived from 1874 to 1935.

Thaxton originally moved to McRae in 1905 to open the first Coca-Cola bottling franchise in the state of Georgia. Then in 1935 he donated 475 acres, which included the beach portion of the state park, to the state of Georgia to help form the park. 

There are enough sand beaches floating around the state parks that I can’t call this fully unique, but what is partially unique about this particular beach is the type of sand. 

The sand throughout this park is the same sand which lines the Ocmulgee River, fine and white. This provides an experience more similar to an actual beach. 

I know this is because it was a Tuesday mid day and not an evening or weekend, but being able to sit on the sand with my toes in the water and just be there for a while was very meditative.

 It was also a perfect place to pull my lunch from the cooler and eat. 

Thankfully, by the time I was ready to head back my phone was functioning normally and I simply followed instructions while listening to a podcast about Genghis Khan on my drive back to Colquitt County.