Leaving Tomorrow for the Okefenokee!

Another Okefenokee photography excursion has finally arrived! My daughter and I leave at 6 AM tomorrow morning and head south toward our favorite destination. This trip includes permits for two nights within the Swamp at the Round Top Shelter and Floyd’s Island. What a privilege!

We hope to arrive at the Suwannee Canal eastern entrance just after lunch. We will either walk the trails and boardwalk, or put in the canoe to explore toward Monkey Lake. Wednesday night we’re trying our first stay in a camper cabin at Okefenokee Pastimes. (I’ll put up a review of the campground after our trip).

On Thursday morning we launch from the Suwannee Canal and paddle about eleven miles to overnight at the Round Top Shelter. Friday morning we make a short paddle to Floyd’s Island and will have most of the afternoon to explore the drier areas of the island and spend the night in the Hebard Cabin, built in the early 1900’s during the cypress logging boom. Saturday is the return paddle.

Unfortunately, the forecast for our excursion is 80% to 100% chance of rain the entire four day trip. That makes it hard to bring out my Nikon, but I hope  the rain lets up enough at times to document more of the Swamp and its inhabitants, especially in these areas that I have not been to previously.

The purpose of my Okefenokee Photography Project is to show not only the huge diversity of life within the swamp through photography, but to capture images of the individual plants and animals that use the Okefenokee as a refuge. This wonderful refuge needs our protection. According to my iNaturalist tallies, I’ve photographed 262 species within the refuge. I’m hoping to add some to that count.