Chattahoochee Nature Center 'enchants' with magical trail

ROSWELL, Ga. - It set to be a magical start to the new year at one of Metro Atlanta’s most beautiful properties, as Roswell’s Chattahoochee Nature Center welcomes some very special (and very tiny) new residents for the next few months.

The popular Enchanted Woodland Trail is back, lining the Center’s Kingfisher Pond Trail with miniature fairy houses and gnome homes through February 29th.  The little dwellings were each designed by local artists and families, who were given free rein in creating the structures as long as they incorporated natural objects and encouraged visitors to stop along the trail and look closely at the surrounding landscape.  

Full disclosure: A non-artist decided to get into the action this year, after covering the Enchanted Woodland Trail for Good Day Atlanta last year.  That’s right — yours truly built a small house for this year's collection, and I was determined to do it on a tight budget!  Using a small basket and birdhouse — both purchased from Goodwill for about $5 total — as the basic structure, the design incorporates twigs collected from my own backyard, a whole bunch of small rocks, and some gold beads to create a “Dig For Gold” theme, in which some greedy gnomes search for buried treasure under a fairy’s tiny home. 

The Enchanted Woodland Trail is free with General Admission to the Chattahoochee Nature Center, which costs $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, and $6 for children ages three to 12.  The Center is located at 9135 Willeo Road in Roswell, and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays and Noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays.  

Okay, so we know you want to see how the “Dig For Gold” house turned out.  Spoiler Alert — it’s nowhere near the artistic achievement that some of the fairy houses are!  But we’re excited to be part of the Enchanted Woodland Trail, anyway — click the video player to check it out!