The okefenokee Swamp is crazy, if y'all aint been out there in your lifetime .....

[Top Row Dawg]

Your really missing something.

Been down loading images all morning.

[CornersDawg]

Y’all better get on the stick and tell the governor and state legislature to step in and stop this proposed mining operation on the swamps eastern rim. I don’t care what they say, it’s too much risk and will destroy the swamp forever.

[UncleJohnsDawg]

I feel the same way.

[FeralDawg]

I been meaning to get back there. There's a cabin in there with a family picture on the wall from WAAAAAY back and last time I went
I didn't take any pictures. One of my relatives used to do the Swamp tours until a few years back.

[JC-DAWG83]

Agree, and it is the kind of thing that once the damage starts it can't be undone.  Florida has pretty well ruined Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades and the damage can't really be undone.

[Creed]

The wooden platforms on the canoe trail to sleep on are badass.

[RockmartDawg]

I've only been once... must have been early-1990s. I was surprised that there were alligators just laying around all over the place, right there in the grass in front of the visitor's center with nothing between us and them. I guess they lay dormant and still during the day, just taking in the heat from the sun.

We went on the boat ride that takes you through some channels out in the swamp. The guide sits at the back of the little boat (maybe seats like 9-12 people?) with the small motor.



He stopped and demonstrated soap bush, or something like that, which he pulled his hand down a branch, tearing off the leaves, dunking his hand in the water and rubbing the leaves together between his hands, which created a small amount of suds to clean his hands.

He drove us up by one or two "smaller" alligators ("smaller" meaning maybe 5-6 feet long) who were laying on their little cleared area right on the bank. He would push that little boat literally right up next to them, freaking everybody out. I know he was having a blast. 

But the grand finale was when the boat ride was very near its end, and he took us up a channel that came alongside, and sorta to the front of the visitor's center. There laid Big Oscar, by far the biggest alligator, biggest REPTILE, I have ever seen.. his body wrapped behind and around a pretty big pine tree on the bank. I can't adequately put into words the sensation of seeing that gigantic monster. It was a genuine feeling of fear. Per articles online, he was 13' 5" long and weighed 1,000 lbs!!!!! The word "dinosaur" wells up within you as you are sitting in that pithy little boat out in the water, especially when the grinning park ranger starts nudging you closer and closer and closer to Big Oscar. I wonder how much cussing he has heard during his career at the park?

I can only find a few photos of Big Oscar. When he died (2007, so I am reading) the park could only get enough funds to preserve his skeleton. That's terrible. A state park couldn't even afford to have taxidermy work done to fully save and display his body.

I think this is good ole' Okefenokee Joe pictured with him.





Remains Of Oscar The Alligator

[Todd]

It's on my list of things to do. I need to just plan a Saturday to visit. And agreed about the mining operation.

[Booneville Dawg]

Spent 2 weeks down there on the big fire of 2007
.