Merry Christmas from the Okefenokee!
We spent Christmas 2025 at the campground in the Laura S. Walker State Park in Georgia, just outside Waycross near the North end of the Okefenokee. We really enjoyed the campground on the banks of a peaceful lake with a variety of scenic walking trails through the campground and surrounding woods.
During our stay we took a 90 minute guided boat trip on the Okefenokee which started at the Richard S. Bolt Visitor Center at the east entrance to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge near Folkston, Georgia. The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Mary’s rivers.  The refuge provides habitat for threatened and endangered species, such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, indigo snake, and wood stork, along with a wide variety of other wildlife.  It is world renowned for its amphibian populations that are bio-indicators of global health. The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has 353,981 acres of National Wilderness Area within the refuge boundaries. In addition, the refuge is a Wetland of International Importance because of the Okefenokee Swamp’s importance and value on an international scale. The Okefenokee NWR is currently going through the nomination process to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our boat tour through Okefenokee Adventures was let by Bobby who was extremely knowledgeable about the Okefenokee flora and fauna. We had a fairly small group on our tour, so everyone got their questions answered in depth by Bobby. We saw lots of alligators basking in the sunshine along the banks of the canal as we headed into the swamp. The canal is a former logging canal but has not been commercially active for many years. In years past, the Cypress trees were harvested and shipped along the canal, but as they’ve had close to 100 years to recover there were many mature Cypress trees in evidence. A couple of miles along the canal we headed into an open area known as the Prairie, which had been created by earlier wildfires. There were great views across this area of the swamp, and we saw many birds including Sandhill Cranes, Egrets, and Blue Heron. Here you could see the floating peat islands beginning to form and repopulate with grass and trees that will eventually fill open areas to create a denser swampland. The name Okefenokee means Land of Trembling Earth which references the floating peat islands that form the swampland.
After the boat tour we took the Swamp Island Drive motor tour just outside the visitor center. This is a self-guided auto tour “lollipop route” of a total 7.4 miles. Swamp Island Drive has 12 numbered markers that indicate walking trails, historic sites, and other interesting points of interest. Near the end of the drive we visited the Chesser Island Homestead, a recreation of a 19th Century homestead that was occupied by the Chesser family through the mid-20th Century. The main building was closed during our visit, but we were able to see through the windows and look into some of the four rooms, including an indoor kitchen. Bathroom facilities were outside, but a bathtub was located on the back porch. We walked around the outbuildings that include a smokehouse, syrup shed, chicken coop, corncrib, and hog pen. The yard retains its original character – it is free of all vegetation, as was the custom of the time to reduce fire danger and increase visibility of snakes.
A highlight of our visit was the Chesser Island Boardwalk. We took the fully accessible boardwalk to the 40-foot Owls Roost Tower for a vast view of Seagrove Lake, prairies, and the Okefenokee Wilderness. We were there during the golden hour and were able to take some spectacular pictures as the sun was setting over the swamp.
