Eastern Box Turtle on the Trail

· Outdoors, Stone Mountain, Wildlife

While hiking out at Stone Mountain, I came across this Eastern Box Turtle on the side of the trail.

Eastern Box Turtle resting in a shallow depression along the trail

It looked like it was trying to dig into the dirt.

Top-down view of the box turtle carapace with intricate yellow and black patterns

The pattern across its shell was neat.

Close-up of the turtle peeking out from its shell, highlighting its bright red eye

The internet tells me that the red eye and the flatter shell shape suggests that it’s a male. After grabbing a few photos, I left him to his digging and kept moving down the trail.