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Peachtree
Rock
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A Side View of Peachtree Rock
(A Sketch by Our Web Group Artist)
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Peachtree Rock Preserve
is a great example of weathering, erosion, ancient shore deposition,
and plant life. It is in the county of Lexington about 15 minutes
from the town of Lexington. Peachtree Rock was the ancient shoreline
of the Eocene marine environment. It has multicolored sand and clay
that has been protected from natural disasters that have happened in
the past years. Peachtree
Rock sits on the Aiken Plateau in Lexington County, in the state of
South Carolina. The preservation is about 302 acres of land that was
created 1980. The road to lead to the preserve and the sand in the
preserve are made of upper Eocene sands, Miocene River deposits, an
Pleistocene/Pliocene sand dunes. These sands contain fragmented
marine fossils, but they are mainly in the condition of shell hash
and shrimp burrows. You may not collect fossils of any type.
Sadly, the formation called Peachtree Rock has been
defaced by people who inscribe their names or initials in it. The
rock is about 20 feet high and looks like an upside down pyramid.
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There is a waterfall in this
preserve that drops about 20 feet and forms a creek called Hunts
Creek. The rocks under and around the waterfall have small worm and
shrimp burrows in them. The shrimp burrows are from the ancient
shoreline that was there millions of years ago. This has one of the
largest marine fossil location in the state. The preserve has many
trails that at one point all runs in to each other. Some trails are good for biking and walking. None are too
hard, except for climbing a few layers of trees.
At the end of one of the trails is Little Peachtree rock.
This Peachtree rock is also called Tall rock. It looks like a
dinosaur’s head. It is made of sandstone and like the other one,
it too has been defaced.
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Once we arrived at
Peachtree Rock we walked on a short little path and saw columns of
rock that have burrows that were left by shrimp and other animals.
Peachtree rock is about twenty feet high, and is a remnant from
millions of years ago when the piedmont was South Carolina’s
eastern shoreline. I thought Peachtree looked like the shape of
South Carolina. This beautiful landmark is made of sandstone and has
been destroyed because of people going to visit it and then carving
their initials into the rock. Actions such as this have made it so
that one day the actual rock will tip over. Littering also destroys
the natural beauty of this historic South Carolina landmark.
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can take while visiting Peachtree Rock the Blue trail, which is a
1.5 mile loop and the Orange trail, which is a 0.5 loop. Along the
trails you will notice many types of vegetation that range from
different types of fungi all the way to magnolias. There is also a
small waterfall that adds to the natural beauty of this preserve.
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© S. Debebe-Kumssa, J. Grindrod, V. Lyles, N. Osmanski, and M. Poarch
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