Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn McHargue.
Hi Shawn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I have been an avid outdoor person since I married my wife in 2013. When we first moved to Atlanta we were your typical newlyweds, moving to a new city. We didn’t have much money, nor abundance of friends, so we started searching the city for free things to do and came across the “top 10 hikes near Atlanta” list we found on the internet.
This began our own personal nature weekend adventures. From there, we ventured out and hiked all 10 recommended free (or extremely budget-friendly) trails and camped the North Georgia mountains. We even thru-hiked the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail!
A few short years later, we had our first child and driving to the mountains every weekend wasn’t an option anymore. Thankfully, Atlanta is known as the “City in the Forest”, so we looked inward, within the city perimeter, and found there were a lot of kid-friendly hikes in-town and nearby – however, this took time!
I really enjoy utilizing maps while exploring new areas. I love finding new places – local, off the beaten trail, or overlooked experiences. Through my personal interest in maps, I was able to find numerous in-town nature preserves, kid-friendly hikes, playgrounds, and green spaces. I found that if I Googled “hikes in Atlanta” or other general hiking terminology, search engines would bring up trails more than an hour outside of the perimeter. I spent a significant amount of time pulling up the Atlanta map area and zooming into any “green spaces” that came up. I would look at the pictures listed on the Google location, read reviews, and cross-check the location to find out what the experience would be like with other apps. This took a considerable amount of my time.
While I love maps and this is an enjoyable hobby for me, I spent a significant amount of time doing this research. I knew there had to be an easier way to find free, natural, family-friendly outside trails and nature preserves.
During the Covid Pandemic we had a 13 month old little girl, full of energy, ready to explore the world in front of her, and we were locked down for Covid. One day, we went to Sweetwater Creek State Park for a normal family adventure day. We saw so many families with kids playing in the river and enjoying all that Atlanta’s nature has to offer! We started talking to one family about how great it is that we have places like this for our kids to explore. I soon realized during our conversation that this family actually didn’t know that there were more places than just Sweetwater Creek State Park for their kids to play in nature locally.
Over the next few months, I had similar conversations, multiple times, with different families that had no or little idea that there were so many options for outdoor play within the Atlanta perimeter area. This began the drive that led me to wanting to inform as many young families about this hidden treasure of information.
After realizing the need for this information, I saw an opportunity that I could fill for families to better explore and appreciate the city we live in. This is where I began the creation of my Instagram account, @OutsideInAtlanta, and began sharing all of my family’s outdoor experiences and geo-tagging our locations so others could find them to enjoy for themselves.
Since then, I have created a website, linked to my Instagram, with an interactive map that toggles specific locations of kid-friendly hiking trails, splash pads, green spaces, and playgrounds. The majority of the locations listed on my website are within the perimeter, and are free of cost, with the exception of a few notable metro-Atlanta locations that are outside the perimeter and have an entrance fee.
I am hoping to use this resource to inform and motivate families to get outside and enjoy the nature all around us – Atlanta, the City in the Forest. It is my vision that locals begin to use OutsideinAtlanta (my website or Instagram page) as their go-to resource when looking for inexpensive or free, outdoor nature hikes right in their own backyard.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My family has visited and explored every single location identified in our interactive map. We like going to places that people haven’t ever heard of, or there isn’t much information on. Sometimes the new places are great and then sometimes they are a bust. There are some locations that are a bust and therefore are not listed on my resources because they did not meet the bar of family-friendly expectations. On the days we go to a bust location it can feel like a waste of our afternoon, but the silver lining is that now you don’t have to go there!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
OutsideInAtlanta was started as a hobby to create a better work-life balance with my newly growing family. We have been dreaming big lately about how we can do even more with OutsideInAtlanta and have some exciting things launching in the fall. One of those things is creating more of a community of families that like to do stuff outside! We have a free “Child-Led Nature Hike” coming up soon with more events and things planned for the future!
Pricing:
- Free
Contact Info:
- Website: www.OutsideInAtlanta.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outsideinatlanta/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/177244021178440
- “Child Led Nature Hike”: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/379976990407
Image Credits:
All images were taken by Shawn McHargue of OutsideInAtlanta
