Swamp Days and Sun Rays: Christmas 2024/New Year’s 2025 - Laura S. Walker SP - December 2024/January 2025

 Laura S. Walker State Park, GA - The North Side of the Okefenokee - Site #6

December 27, 2024 - January 4, 2025

We journeyed south to one of our favorite “stomping grounds” for camping, staying in a park we’ve not been to before - Laura S. Walker.  Our beloved Stephen C. Foster park is closed due to renovations and clean up from Helene.  That said, we really enjoyed our time at Laura S. Walker and we explored a LOT!


View from our campsite in the morning, looking out over the lake…

This little guy was singing his heart out at the campsite!

And spectacular sunsets…

The reflection on the lake was gorgeous!

We did have some excitement the day we arrived, as we could not get the bunk room slide out - it was completely off the track.  We pushed the slide out forcibly so we would be able to use the room and posted on Facebook, looking for a mobile RV mechanic in that area.  Steve almost immediately got a response and was able to schedule for someone to come out the next day.  The mechanic (PattyCakes) was very nice and had made the trip all the way from Savannah!!  He was able to get the slide back on track so we could move it in and out.  WHEW!

The next day, we headed out to explore the Okefenokee.  About 15 minutes from the campground was the north entrance to the swamp and a park where we could explore a little.  We were disappointed to find out that they didn’t rent boats, but did do boat tours as well as a train ride.  So we signed up for both and walked around the park, looking at what it had to offer.  Of all of our Okefenokee “tours”, this was definitely the most touristy/tourist trap like.

That said, we did see Gopher turtles, gators, brown water snakes, box turtles, snapping turtles, yellow belly sliders, and a gray rat snake, plus got to pet a gator, which was pretty cool.
View from boat ride…

Boat ride - there is a snake in one of those trees!

Auntie and Gracie on the train tour…

Kaety and Mommy on the train…

I love this kid.

Back at the campground, we had a lovely fire and a gorgeous sunset…


We decided we didn’t want our only Okefenokee trip to be the one we took to the north entrance, so we set off to explore the southeast side, where we went when we were here last.  It was about 45 minutes from our campground, but well worth the trip.  We rented a John Boat (and didn’t get stuck this time!) and were out amongst the swamp and all the gators!
Required picture with alligator statue…

John Boat Tour with Steve as our guide! :)

Our “tour” was awesome - we kept a tally of our wildlife seen:
41 alligators (plus one dead one that we notified staff of when we returned the boat)
16 turtles
5 Ibis
2 Great Blue Herons
3 Great White Egrets

Just a fabulous day - some of those gators (including the dead one) were REALLY big!
The Swamp is so gorgeous…







BIG GUY!








Back at the campground, we did some walking exploring and rode our bikes around.  It was relaxing!

Grace wanted to do a little geocaching, so we broke out our app and did some exploring and found some caches!  We all went on the hiking trail and participated in the cache experience.  The trail was awesome!

Auntie and Steve reading signs…

Steve participating!

Parts of the trail were hit by Helene, and technically, we weren’t supposed to go on them, but we *may* have continued on…



Glad we continued on!



Of course, on the way back, we had to stop at the “exercise park” so Kaety could get her workout on…

The last two days were spent playing games, relaxing, having fireside fun and watching a spectacular full moon as we moved into 2025!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Steve’s Retirement Trip to Tennessee June/July 2024: Part 1: Off We Go!

Image
Lake Oconee KOA, Greensburg, GA to Sasquatch Farm, South Pittsburg, TN June 28-29 Lake Oconee KOA - Site 31 With much anticipation, Steve’s last day of work was Thursday, June 20, 2024.  He began his retirement with a week of camping prep for our trip to Appalachia and adventures in Tennessee.  We left on his 62nd birthday, but maybe didn’t spend the day *exactly* how he planned.   Our adventure started by finding out the day before that our beloved pet sitter who had been planning to stay with our pup had been hospitalized, so we had to pivot and take the pups with us.  This meant bringing two cars (which ended up being helpful) and packing up dog supplies at the last minute to add to our travels.  I have to say, the dogs were excited to get to go with us for the first time this year! We set off around 10 am on Steve’s birthday, heading out for a 4 hour drive to the Lake Oconee KOA (which we hadn’t been to), as a pit stop on the way to South Pittsburgh, TN, whi...
Read more

Lake Time & Birthday Celebrations: Hester’s Bottoms June 2025

Image
 Hester’s Bottoms, Mt. Carmel, SC, Site #6 June 21-29, 2025 We decided to spend Steve and my birthdays camping at a lake this year, and decided we really wanted to go back to Hester’s Bottoms on Clark’s Hill Lake. It’s been 4 years since we first camped here, but we knew we would be on the lake and would get good time together, so we set off to Mt. Carmel, SC amidst record heat in SC for June.  Every day was over 95, with heat indexes well into the 100’s - it was HOT.  We were very glad we were able to cool off in the lake! The night before we headed out, Steve surprised me with a dinner out and a show - a John Denver tribute band!  We had seen them before in Seattle, years ago.  But they were sooooo good and it was so much fun.  Auntie took the girls and we all had fun nights!   The next morning, we headed out to Hester’s Bottoms! Hester’s did not disappoint.  The first night, we celebrated my birthday with some fun puzzles and signs as presents ...
Read more

Steve’s Retirement Trip to Tennessee June/July 2024: Part 4: Chattanooga fun & BATS!

Image
Rock City, The Incline Railway and Nickajack Cave Bat Kayak Sasquatch Farm, Site #17 Tuesday, 7/2 Today was a BUSY day! We had three excursions planned across two different timezones.  Unfortunately, Auntie’s foot was starting to show the wear of the day before and she chose to stay at the camper for the majority of the day and only joined us for our evening excursion. The pups were excited about a day laying around with one of their favorites! As we headed out of Sasquatch Farm on Brown Trace Rd, among the “deer!” and “horse!” exclamations that Kaety shared along the way, we also came across a small box turtle sitting in the middle of the road. I yelled “turtle!” and Steve steered the truck over so I could run out in the middle of the road and help the poor guy over to the edge/woods on the other side of the road where he appeared to be heading. It felt like a good deed for the day and started my day off in the right way! We headed out on the highway toward Chattanooga and Rock Ci...
Read more