An intimate river with a piedmont flavor, the Yellow River Water Trail stretches from suburban Atlanta to Lake Jackson covering the counties of Gwinnett, Dekalb, Rockdale, and Newton with put-in and take-out points located approximately every five to ten miles. The 53-mile river is mostly flatwater, and has a wide array of wildlife and a rich history from prior mill towns and Native American Indian settlements. The upper suburban stretches offer locals a quiet, peaceful, paddling getaway from hectic life. 

 

Georgia, along with its neighbors in the Southeast, is home to some of the richest diversity of fish and other aquatic life in the world! The beauty of this diversity is brilliantly illustrated in places like Georgia’s Conasauga River, in the North Georgia 

mountains, where 76 native fish species—many of them tiny and brightly colored— live in the fast-moving, crystal-clear waters near the river’s source. And it’s not just the mountain streams: it was in the lower Oconee River, after all, that scientists “re-discovered” a fish called the Robust Redhorse in the 1990s, after the species had been lost to science for more than 120 years.

 

The Yellow River Watershed supports 22 plant and 11 animal species that are endangered or threatened. 

 

Learn more about these species, and how you can help conserve them, at www.garivers.org.