Southern Highlands Reserve Field Trip - Friday, September 11th, Cashiers, NC

Our Social Director is putting together another over-the-top day-or-overnight Field Trip for you in Western North Carolina's Highlands-Cashiers Plateau! She's planning to make it at least as wonderful as our fabulous "Jenks Farmer & Friends Field Trip"! 

We’ll have the same overall plan – roughly 30 hours, including driving, filled to the brim with gardens, good friends, and good food! We’ll overnight in Cashiers, NC. Our first stop Friday morning is 10:30 at the Southern Highlands Reserve. It is approximately three hours from Atlanta, so we'll want to depart from the Atlanta area around 7:30.

The Southern Highlands Reserve is a private, high-altitude, native-plant arboretum and research center showcasing the rare ecology of the Southern Appalachians. As many of you already know, getting to see this magical place is extremely difficult! Tickets for their visitors days disappear in minutes! The walking tour is considered moderate, as the SHR's elevation is 4500 ft. Wear comfortable walking shoes! And, pack your lunch, as we'll picnic on site! Our next stop will be the fabulous Chattooga Gardens nursery in Cashiers. It is the favorite nursery of Georgia Perennial members Bonnie, Michell, and Melissa Thurmond, and we know you’ll understand why once you get there! Every nook and cranny is filled with fabulous plants and everything else a gardener might dream of procuring! After we visit the nursery, we’ll have a chance to visit a private garden (TBD). Then we'll swing by a Native Plant Sale in nearby Highlands, NC before heading back to Cashiers to check into our lodgings and rest.

We’ll meet up again Friday evening at 6:30 at McKinney Meadows, a conservation land trust in downtown Cashiers developed by horticulturists from the Southern Highlands Reserve and Friends of McKinney Meadow, before heading to Georgia Perennial Member Bonnie Thurmond‘s house for dinner. We are working on a speaker (TBD) to tell us more about the unbelievable natural history of the area as featured in ABC/National Geographic's Seven Natural Wonders of America.

Saturday morning we’ll meet at the Highlands Biological Station at 10:30 for a private tour of their Botanical Gardens with one of their naturalist guides. Before heading there, early risers can tour the gardens of the Cashiers Village Green Conservancy, and super early risers can go for a icy dip in the headwaters of the Chattooga River to start the day! We'll have lunch together in Highlands (restaurant TBD) before going our separate ways.

For those who want to stay for the rest of the weekend, we can recommend innumerable, fabulous hikes, waterfalls, and places to visit in the area. Reach out to Georgia Perennial Member Melissa Thurmond for questions and ideas.

We are lucky to be coinciding with a seminar put on by the Highlands Biological Station "Celebrating Native Plants: Diversity & Discovery." Those who want to attend the seminar can head over early and, during the long break between the first and second lectures, meet us to tour the Botanical Gardens and have lunch. 

We have reached the maximum number of people (25) that the Southern Highlands Reserve allows on a tour. If you are still interested in joining us, please make sure your name is on our sign-up sheet, as we may have cancellations. Additionally, if there is enough interest, we may consider adding another tour date. The sign-up sheet also has all the information tourgoers will need. We'll update the website and sign-up sheet as plans evolve.