Tourism
Come Play in our Backyard
Welcome to our backyard! Baxley and Appling County have a great deal of fun outdoor activities and entertainment for all ages. Take a journey down the mighty Altamaha River on one of the annual canoe & kayak paddles or enjoy fishing or boating in one of two local lakes. The Moody Forest Nature Conservancy offers miles of walking/biking trails through the 4,400 acre wilderness. Join the 200 mile Peaches to the Beaches Yard sale the second weekend in March, for new and old items alike. If it is heritage you are looking for, the Baxley Heritage center has collected the history of Baxley and Appling County all the way back to before Appling County was incorporated in 1818. Stop by the Caroline Miller house to see where the first Pulitzer Prize winner from Georgia wrote her legendary book, Lamb in his Bosom. If you are here in the fall be sure to look up the local play, “In the Pines”, which takes viewers back in time to Appling County happenings from the early days of its settlement.
Moody Forest Natural Area is named for the Moody family, which arrived in Appling County in the mid-1800s and spent much of the next century on the land, living amongst the longleaf pine trees and alongside the Altamaha River.
Visit the preserve to hike its trails, though, and its name takes on a whole different meaning, one that perfectly encapsulates the ethereal beauty of the 4,426-acre wilderness. Old-growth longleaf and slash pines rise to guard the misty waters of the Altamaha River as it carves through cypress and tupelo swamps. Sunshine filters through dogwoods and basket oaks, tossing light and shadows onto fallen leaves. The sounds of nature are constant: the low call of wild turkeys, the echo of red-cockaded woodpeckers at work and the wind in the high canopy of longleaf pines.