Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller Expedition Date: July 28, 2019
Rosie & I visited this unique National Park, 27,000 acres of floodplain steeped in folktales, ghost stories and America’s largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. We hiked a 5.5 mile trail (the Boardwalk Trail & Weston Lake Loop) which, in the wet season, becomes swampland. Rangers told us to look for 6 types of woodpeckers but beware of the 5 types of venomous snakes plus feral pigs that roam the backwoods. Everywhere, we saw large spider webs with huge, colorful golden silk orb weaver spiders (Photo#4). Saw the famous, tall loblolly pine trees, countless bald cypress trees and turtles (Photo#5). The small cypress “knees” look like small cities of stalagmites (Photo#3). Folklore has it that fairy’s dwell in these pointed little cities. The park looked more like a jungle swamp than a forest. We highly recommend you visit this off the radar national park.
