Pilgrimage 2025 registration is here! We are going online this year. If you have technical problems, email Merrill Morris. Registration is due by April 18.
NOTE: The T-shirt shop is now open! You do not have to wait until you register for the Pilgrimage to order your shirt. Shirt purchases are processed separately from Pilgrimage registrations. T-shirt shop purchases end April 1.
For over half a century the Georgia Botanical Society has held a Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage each year to an area of botanical interest. The 2025 Pilgrimage will be held April 25-27 in Ellijay and East Ellijay, GA.
The pilgrimage will consist of a weekend full of field trips, a Friday night social with light hors d’oeuvres, and a Saturday evening program with a casual dinner followed by two speakers. Registration for the Pilgrimage is expected to open no later than March 13. Watch for an email notification, or check this page.
About This Year’s Site
Ellijay sits at the confluence of the Cartecay and Ellijay Rivers in North Georgia, where they form the Coosawattee River. Originally a Cherokee village called Elatseyi, Ellijay is now the county seat of Gilmer County. What most people think of as ‘Ellijay’ is actually two towns – Ellijay on the west side of the Cartecay River, and East Ellijay on the east side. Our Pilgrimage headquarters will actually be in the town of East Ellijay.
Ellijay is perfectly suited for our Pilgrimage, with the Cohutta Wilderness to the northwest and the Rich Mountain Wilderness to the northeast. Fort Mountain State Park is a scenic 19 miles to the west, and Amicalola Falls State Park is 22 rolling miles to the east. Portions of the vast Chattahoochee National Forest nearby surround Ellijay. 15 miles to the north is Blue Ridge, another popular mountain town.
Click here for a map showing the field trip and program locations for this year’s Pilgrimage.
Saturday Night Dinner and Program
Saturday night activities will be held at the Victory Christian Center in Ellijay. A casual pizza dinner party will be prepared by Ellijay Wood Fired Pizza, specializing in authentic Neapoli-tan Pizza from Ellijay’s historic downtown business district with their wood fired oven from Naples. Pizza dinner buffet will be brought to us by food truck right outside of the VCC to ensure freshness.
Our evening program will include two presentations:
1. “Recent Rare, Potentially New, and Rediscovered Flora of North Georgia” by Tom Diggs
2. “Plant Conservation in the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan” by Lisa Kruse
The Pilgrimage brochure contains details of all field trips and group activities.
