1065 December 1, 2023 Way Down Upon The Suwanee River

There is a really nice paved country lane that runs beside the campground.  I walked until the blacktop turned to dirt, about 1.5 miles, and then turned around.  Tim met me with a mile to go and we walked back together.  It was 70 degrees and sunny! 

Today we went to explore the Nature Coast.  We started at Shell Mound.  This is a 28-foot-high pile of mostly oyster shells that was left by native coastal peoples, thousands of years ago.  I was excited to see it.  When we got there, the road and trail was closed!

We did go to the campground.  It sits right on the Gulf and might be a possibility after we leave Cedar Key.

We drove to the Lower Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge where we did one of our favorite things.  We took dirt and limestone roads through the wilderness.  We traversed cypress swamps, hardwood forest, and salt marshes.  We drove down almost every spur and took the 9-mile nature drive through the park.  We got out to walk several times.

We saw some wildlife today.  Not pictured are the deer, the second armadillo, and the group of feral pigs.

This bat box is home to 30,000 bats of several species. At sunset, they erupt from the box and spend the night hunting.

This area is 40,000 acres and we had the whole refuge to ourselves.

We stopped for lunch across from park headquarters.

I really wanted to see the Suwanee River but the trail was closed because the boardwalk was unsafe.  We walked as far as we could.

We drove into Fowler where we found a boat ramp on the river.

We had a really fun day and the weather was outstanding!