January 11-13, 2018 Ofefenokee Swamp, Georgia

When we left Fort McAllister it was cloudy and rainy.  There was fog on the Ogeechee river as we drove by. Beautiful historic downtown Waycross, Georgia- a railroad town. We also drove through Argyle, Georgia. We are camped at Stephen C Foster state park in the Okefenokee swamp. Be aware Alligators present sign at the marina. The bus at our campsite. This is our second time here. It is a beautiful, dark and quiet park. It is in the 70's and very pleasant. 

The boardwalk on the Trembling Earth nature trail. Okefenokee means trembling earth in the local indian language. Much of the vegetation is on floating mats on the boggy marsh. We are camped on an island in the swamp. An alligator in the marina with the sky reflected. 

This anhinga was doing a weird dance. Neck outstretched and grunting, then head up and repeat, then it spread it's wings and repeated. Baby gators in the marina and white tailed deer in the park. The next day it was 74 degrees and rainy. We went paddling in the swamp.These 5 bald cypress trees with spanish moss are called the five sisters. The rain really brings out the colors on them. The water looks black, but is really tea brown colored from the tannins from the plants that sit in the swamp. It looks black when it is deeper. It reflects the colors really beautifully. When I paddled behind the trees a really big gator jumped in the water. They are afraid of people and usually slip in the water as soon as they hear us. When we put our boats in- first we took mine down to the water then went back and got John's. Then we noticed the two gators on the bank. They left too. 

Besides rainy it was also foggy. It looked great on the swamp. John paddling ahead of me into the mist. The cypress trees are buttressed at the bottom to stand in the water. The rain brings out the color of the moss on the sides.

John heading upstream. He took this of me too. The swamp is the headwaters for the Suwannee River. We are paddling up stream, but the current is not too bad. 

Black water, rain drops and John disappearing ahead. We paddled about 2.5 miles up, then turned around. It was raining harder and my rain gear was failing. 

When we got back to the main channel it was pouring rain and we paddled against howling headwinds. It was miserable. Miraculously it just stopped and the sun came out, it was lovely. We stopped for lunch. We saw tons of birds. Woodpeckers, ibis, hawks, snowy egrets, great blue herons, kingfishers. 

John at lunch enjoying the sun. He has his life jacket on under his coat, makes him looks prosperous. As soon as we put the boats on the car it started to rain again. We were almost lulled into staying out longer because of the sun. Good thing we didn't. The sun came out at sunset. This is from the campground. 

Clouds above the canal out of the park and live oaks with spanish moss. 

Sunset was worth waiting for. The sign at the main channel showing the different destinations. I love that on each side of it was a sign that said home and pointed to the campground. Snowy egret, pets prohibited in all watercraft. The sign on the trail to Minnie's lake, a mushroom by the oaks and sunset clouds reflected by water lilies. 

The next day we hiked three miles around the park, then did a night time paddle to see the stars with the ranger. We paddled into the sunset when we went out. This is from camp, but it looked like this on the lake, but I didn't take my camera on the night paddle. The refuge is a designated 'dark sky' park, so the stars were wonderful. The water was smooth and it was quiet. With flashlights we could see the gators eyes reflecting. Lots more than you see during the day. The other people were fun. They were not experienced boaters, the canoe people had so much trouble paddling in a straight line they must have gone three times farther than the rest of us. But everyone had fun.