Some Deer, a Snake, and a Gator...Oh MY! A photo essay of Stephen C. Foster State Park

This is a continuation of an earlier photo essay about our day at the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge when we were home in South GA for the holidays. The other photo essay about our visit to the Suwannee River Sill is here , in case you haven't seen it yet.

After we left the Sill, we headed into the Stephen C. Foster State park. The park is a  concession run by the State of Georgia which is inside of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge.

Here's a link to the park web site with more information about it. They have 66 campsites and 9 cottages. They also rent motor boats, kayaks, and canoes for people to explore the Swamp on their own.

For the less adventurous they're are guided tours.

As soon as we entered the park gate we were welcomed by two does who were feeding by the roadside:

We stopped alongside this one and she hardly noticed us

Then, this little guy came over closer to her, we think she might be his momma

He's a fine little "button" buck...see his tiny little knobs where horns will be one day?

My brother, Jamie, works at the Swamp and we were able to visit with him for a few minutes. Here's a photo of him and my husband, Wayne, who is sitting in the swing. Wayne and I both worked at the Swamp when we were younger. I worked during the summers when I was in high school and as a Youth Group leader with the YCC my first year in college. Wayne worked there as seasonal help one summer and that's were we met and started dating.

Jamie was getting ready to take out a tour when we got there. So after our visit, he went over to get the tour boat ready.

It was almost 2:00 pm and people soon started arriving to board the pontoon boat.

Once everyone was loaded and settled in, they began their hour-long tour. My brother said this is one of his favorite parts of his job. Having grown up on the edge of the Okefenokee as we did as kids, he is a fountain of knowledge about the local flora and fauna, as well as local history.

Looks like Jamie is pointing out the resident gator as they go past. He (the gator) hangs out in the boat basin and poses for the tourists ;-) We will get a glimpse of him later.

After they left Wayne and I decided to take a stroll on the nature trail,

Native Americans called the Swamp Okefenoka, meaning “Land of the Trembling Earth”. The reason for this name is the due to the vast amount of peat deposits found all through the Swamp.  Some  of these peat bogs are up to 15 feet thick, and cover much of the swamp floor. Sometimes they rise to the water's surface to form miniature islands. These deposits are so unstable in spots that trees and surrounding bushes tremble by stomping the surface.

My daddy, who was raised in the Swamp and helped his father provide for the family by hunting and trapping there in the forties and fifties when he was a youngster tells of walking on these "islands" while checking fish lines or traps. He said you had to be careful or you might step through or fall off and a gator would be waiting on you.

Tall tale or the truth? Well, he says it's so. He is an original Georgia Swamp Cracker, and as some of you may remember a photo essay I did about him last year. He'd definitely one of a kind ;-)

As we started on the trail, a local said hello and posed for a photo

Work on the trails in the Swamp, both on land and water, are maintained jointly by the state park employees and the federal employees of the Refuge. As a YCC participant in the mid 1970's I was part of a group who worked to maintain trails in the Swamp.  It was an experience I will always treasure.

A little ways on the main trail we came to the boardwalk that branches off to the left and runs for nearly 1,000 feet into the Swamp. You can see it there where Wayne is walking.

We turned onto it, hoping to see some more wildlife.

We aren't disappointed as soon we see an anole lizard basking on a log off the boardwalk

He seems a bit wary of me as I stopped to snap a shot, so I got a close-up and moved on.

Lilly pads, one of my favorite Swamp plants, are my next find

This one was in the shade and I set my light meter to dark to get a bluish tint to it

On the other side of the board walk from where the lilly pads were I see this gorgeous reflection, and had to take a shot

I posted it with my photos last week because I love the "illusion" look of it. Do you see the leaves on the bottom or the trees reflected in the dark waters?

The tea-color of the water is due to the tannic acid released by the trees and the peat and muck build up on the bottom of the Swamp. It makes for a gorgeous shade, don't you think?

Further along Wayne sees something that look interesting and motions me to come to where he is. The boardwalk sits about 3 feet above the water and land, here is what we saw

This is a Cottonmouth Water Moccassin (Agkistrodon piscivorus) which is a venomous pitviper species. These snakes are often mistaken for a banded water snake.

However, cottonmouths have large, triangular heads with a dark line through the eye, elliptical pupils, and large jowls  due to their venom glands. They are large – 24 - 48 inches long, and heavy-bodied snakes.

Their coloration is highly variable: they can be beautifully marked with dark crossbands on a brown and yellow ground color or completely brown or black. Older adults are often dark and solid-colored whereas the juveniles are brightly patterned with a sulphur yellow tail tip that they wiggle to attract prey.

From the size and coloring of this one, my husband and I decided he was an older snake. He watched our every move as I stooped down to take some shots.

Having grown up in a very wooded, rural area on the edges of the Okefenokee, I was taught to respect the snakes I came across. They are not often aggressive, but they do not suffer fools gladly, as the old saying goes ;-)

The muck and and green algae found in the Swamp may not seem beautiful to some, but for me, it' s a reminder of the ancient primordial past that the Okefenokee represents.

The Okefenokee is really just a vast bog inside a huge, saucer-shaped depression that was once part of the ocean floor. I can see so much of Mother Earth's rich history reflected in the savage, primeval beauty the Swamp has to offer.

As we return to the the boat basin, we see the resident gator, Wilbur, has come out onto the boat ramp to pose.

Wilbur doesn't look so large from the far side of the basin but...

as you zoom your lens in, you see he is a pretty big fellow

So, I continue to walk around the sidewalk by the boat basin to get a little closer

This, I decide, is close enough. Now I'll use my ZOOM lens again for a couple  more shots.

This is Wilbur, a prehistoric link to our past, and part of the primeval, savage beauty I spoke about earlier.  Isn't he a gorgeous specimen?

Goodbye Wilbur, we'll leave you now for other people to gaze upon and photograph.

And they do...according to Wikipedia, nearly 400,000 people from all over the world visit the refuge each year, making it the 16th most visited refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge system.

So, maybe others do see the beauty that I see when I visit the Swamp.

I've always been proud to call it "home."

Oh, I have one more photo to share. On the way out of the park, my brother told us where to look for a large hornets' nest...I'd be giving this a wide berth for sure~

In my last and final photo essay about the Swamp, when I get time to do it, we'll go out in a boat and motor.

You just think you've seen an alligator here ;-)

Thanks for coming along, I enjoyed sharing my Swamp with y'all ;-)

Rose S. Williams

Southernstoryteller 2009