Revisiting The Okefenokee Swamp

Canal Diggers Trail, watercolor, 10" x 14."

On our recent Florida vacation I just had to visit the Okefenokee Swamp again. Our friends told us there had been extensive fires last summer and thousands of acres in the refuge had burned. I wanted to see the extent of the damage.

Fire in the wilderness is a natural phenomena, and as our guide sagely remarked, if it weren't for periodic  fires, the area would become so overgrown it would be known as the Okefenokee Forest, rather than Swamp. In fact, the peat floor was still smoldering in parts of the northwestern section of the refuge.

However, the lovely boardwalk trail that took visitors through the swamp out to an observation tower was gone, so the best way to see the swamp was to get out on the water, on one of the small boats, or stick to a few trails still open near the Visitor's Center such as the Long-leaf Pine and Canal Diggers Trail. We explored this short trail while waiting our turn for the boat ride, and found a narrow bridge crossing a small creek. There was no time to paint it then, but I hoped we could return later for a sketch.

Entering the Okefenokee Swamp

Our tour guide with Okefenokee Adventures, Joey was a seventh-generation Okefenokeer (married to an eighth generation Okefenokeer) and a colorful character. He worked us tourists on the boat with a well-worn routine full of jokes and set pieces while regaling us with interesting facts and bits of swamp lore. I saw an unusual water plant with odd-looking flowers and asked about it. Joey said it was called Golden Club. Later on he picked one flower and chomped the yellow part, saying this was one way to survive in the swamp. The yellow part of the blossom was edible, and he picked more flowers so we could each taste one. It was mildly pungent, like a radish--one would sure have to eat an awful lot of it to get enough nourishment!

Golden Club

The ride was about an hour and a half and took us through so many channels that looked much the same; I wondered how long it would take to learn their intricacies. We were back at the dock before I realized we'd circled back to our starting point. The swamp is beautiful, even the burned-out parts with its charred trunks, though I much prefer to see the cypress alive and dripping with Spanish moss.

Once back, we rushed back to the bridge at Canal Diggers Trail so I could work on a watercolor--we had less than two hours before the park closed, so my sketch is very loose and unfinished. By this time the sun had come out from behind the low clouds and was illuminating the fields of saw palmetto underneath the pines. The best view was from the middle of the bridge, naturally, so I had to stand. As you can see, I propped my sketchbook on the railing of the bridge and hooked the brush holder, expecting the breeze to try to snatch it away.

See more photos of the Okefenokee Swamp on my Flickr Album.

The Okefenokee Swamp

We left for Florida a day early so that we could spend the extra day at the Okefenokee Swamp, a place I'd always wanted to see and paint. After an overnight stop in Savannah, we awakened to a light drizzle, which became heavier on the way to breakfast by the Savannah River waterfront. I was afraid it would rain all day and we'd have to call our outing off. Luckily, it gradually cleared during our meal, and by the time we got on the road, it was sunny and getting warmer--a beautiful day.

We drove to the eastern entrance, the most easily accessible from I-95, and stopped at the visitor center for directions, selecting the Swamp Walk Trail as best for my purpose. A 4,000-foot boardwalk culminates in an observation tower overlooking the swamp.

I loaded my gear onto my latest plein air aid--a rolling cart--and set off, but my cart made an awful racket rolling over the boardwalk. There were many interesting side trails, but I was sure the rattle of my cart would scare any wildlife along the way, so I was surprised to see a small alligator sunning in a hole by the boardwalk. We saw some cranes far off in the distance, and finally stopped by a large pond with cypresses in the distance. It was getting on to three in the afternoon when I finally started painting, keenly aware that the refuge would close at sundown, only a couple of hours away now.

My painting is a bit rough, but considering the time limit, I think my val-hues are close and the painting "reads". There were so many unusual colors in this landscape at this time of the year, it was hard to figure out how to mix them: the Spanish moss, the grasses and shrubs, the swamp water... all in such wonderful harmonies! Herb admitted he enjoyed the day far more than he expected, and we managed to drive out just as the sun was sinking below the slash pines.