Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Osceola National Forest, FL to Savannah, GA | Visiting Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge | January 2024

After spending a great week in Florida, it was time to begin our journey North towards North Carolina. We left Osceola National Forest and drove further East on I-10, then North on FL-121 and entered Georgia on GA-23. Our main activity for today came shortly after crossing into Georgia. We drove West until we reached Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Our time here began with visiting the visitor center to get an idea of what we could do here. It looks like a cool place to kayak, but unfortunately dogs aren’t allowed in boats or on the water, even when they look as cute as Charlotte does in her life jacket. So instead we stuck to the trails.

We began our first walk just behind the visitor center, where we were able to see the Suwannee canal where we could have been kayaking. The canal itself was a failed business venture to drain the large swamp and make it into farmland. It had that beautiful charm of the lowcountry scenery with lush greenery all around, and Spanish moss hanging from the branches and swaying lightly in the wind. We began wishing we could be on the still waters, floating along while we enjoyed the views, when suddenly a passenger boat went speeding by, killing the tranquility of the moment. Maybe it was a good thing we weren’t on the water. We were mainly disappointed because we had been told that during the winter, alligators will typically only float up to the surface once a day around noon, and as noon was approaching we were hoping to catch a glance at one, now it didn’t seem likely.

We continued on the trail until we reached the open marsh area at the end, and stopped to admire the view and the birds flying high in the sky. Then we returned to the van to begin our driving tour, and made our way to our next hike. The drive went similarly to the day before at St. Marks NWR: we drove slow, enjoyed the scenery, and spotted some birds along the drive.

Our second hike brought us to the Chesser Homestead, which featured several exhibits where we could walk around and see how the residents of the swamp lived. The current homestead was built in the 1920’s, but the Chesser family had lived on the island in the middle of the swamp since the 1850’s. The home seems remarkably preserved for being almost 100 years old. As we walked around, we imagined what life had been like for them living here in the swamp. It wasn’t too bad today in the cool air, but I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to in the summer!

After our walk around the homestead, we drove to another trailhead that sounded interesting, except it wasn’t dog friendly. We had talked about taking turns going for walks, but storm clouds were moving in so I just let Curtis do the walk on his own while I got some snacks for lunch. The trail followed a boardwalk to a birding tower. He was able to see a couple variety of waterfowl including an Anhinga (which we think was a first), but it was overall pretty quiet in the refuge, probably because it was so cool and overcast. Of course, being here when it’s hot and sunny would probably be worse.

While he was gone, I heard the familiar cry of sandhill cranes flying overhead, and Curtis confirmed that he saw a couple while he was walking. As we drove out of the wildlife refuge, we saw some more at a distance, on the ground in the woods. A great way to end the day, and now we can add Georgia to the growing list of states where we’ve seen sandhill cranes! We continued our drive North, heading up to Savannah for the evening.