Upcoming Fall Okefenokee Swamp NWR Trip!
It’s time for a fall trip to my favorite destination: the Okefenokee Swamp! It’s been a long, busy summer so I’m happy to get away for a few days of absolute peace. I’ll be making a solo trip and hitting a few of the canoe trails that I haven’t covered yet.
I plan to leave around 4 AM and make the drive down to arrive at the Stephen C Foster State Park and launch by 10 AM. I have a wilderness permit reserved for the Canal Run platform the first night. With this permit, I’ll be able to paddle a section of the orange trail I haven’t yet explored. After a night in the swamp, I’ll paddle back to SCF State Park, load up and drive around south of the swamp to the eastern entrance at the Suwannee Canal Recreation area where I have a cabin rented at Okefenokee Pastimes for two nights. I’ll spend the next two days paddling an out-and-back down the pink trail to Monkey lake and then the green trail from Kingfisher Landing to Bluff Lake and back.
The yellow arrows point to the trail sections I'll cover this trip
My current species count within the refuge stands at 286 (see www.inaturalist.org/projects/www-okefenokee-photography-by-william-wise). It will be difficult to increase that species count too much, but I’ll certainly be able to reach over 2,000 photographed observations within the great Okefenokee on this trip. I can't wait!
A map of my current iNaturalist observations within the Refuge
Want to make a virtual exploration of the Okefenokee Swamp? Every few days receive a blog featuring nature journals, articles, book excerpts and natural history of the alligators, reptiles, birds, insects, flora and other fauna of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Subscribe at https://okefenokee.photography/. You can also join the Okefenokee NWR Project here on iNaturalist to view all of the wonderful Okefenokee iNaturalist observations.
