Hiking in Ochlockonee River State Park

Ochlockonee ("o-KLOK-nee") River State Park is a Florida State Park located south of the town of Sopchoppy in the Florida Panhandle. Located on the western end of Florida's Big Bend on the Gulf of Mexico coast, it is surrounded by the Apalachicola National Forest and the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and provides important habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.  Acquired by the State of Florida on May 14, 1970, the park totals 528 acres.

We are camped here for a week, in a beautiful wooded campground filled with live oak and saw palm.  

Our campground is also home to the rare white squirrel. In 1499, immigrants seeking asylum from King Charles of Spain brought white squirrels, some of which escaped to breed with native squirrels. These populations of squirrels are found primarily in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois. White squirrels look almost albino, but do not have pink eyes. The white squirrels here at Ochlockonee River State Park are another color variant of this variable species and are not albino. Instead, they have a completely white coat and dark eyes, a condition known as leucistic, apparently a mutation of the gene that regulates the expression of melanin. The squirrels at Ochlockonee River State Park have a coat that is mostly white, but with a distinctive darker head patch and dorsal stripe.  According to local folklore, white squirrels were first brought as pets to the Breakaway Lodge, a hunting and fishing camp on the Ochlockonee River, in the 1950's by the Lodge's original owners. Eventually, the squirrels bred and the owners gradually released them back into the wild, where they now happily occupy the state park's campground, pirating food from unwary campers.

So, what more fitting way to begin this blog entry about our hike in the park today than to show you a photo of a white squirrel:

After admiring these little creatures, we not-quite-so-rare humans began our 4.5 mile hike around the park:

We expected the hike to mainly showcase local plant life -- which it did -- but we were unprepared for how much animal life we also saw.  In fact, the moment we set foot out of our campground, we saw this deer on the park road:

We headed over to our trailhead by the Ochlockonee River, getting a glimpse of Chesley Island across our branch of the river. 

Ochlockonee, a native Hitchiti word meaning "yellow waters," is a mix of brackish, tidal surge, and fresh water. Pristine and deep, the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

The park includes shorelines on both the Ochlockonee River and the Dead River.  We hiked around the point at their confluence, then on to a quiet dock on the Dead River -- perhaps so named because its water is so still. 

It flows through a grassy estuary that seems to go on forever:

We always like to start our hikes with a trailhead selfy at the trail sign.  Unfortunately, this trail has no sign, other than one identifying it generically as a "Scenic Drive."  Oddly, there was no road access to the Scenic Drive; the few tire tracks onto the trail crossed an open stretch of grass, and it appeared that the only vehicles using the trail are park ranger trucks.  So I guess we'll call this trail, "Scenic Drive."  You can see that Kathy is thrilled with the idea:

Perhaps a mile down the Scenic Drive, we came to a side trail leading to a youth camping area featuring a fire pit overlooking the Dead River:

We didn't expect to find many ponds in this grassland, but, as it turns out, much of the park is wet prairie.  Because the park was the site of a large turpentine-harvesting operation, roads through the pine flatwood had to be built up to be dry, and it appeared that many of the ponds are actually borrow pits that filled with water over time.

On the edge of one of the more open sections of this wet prairie, Kathy spotted a red shouldered hawk who, occasionally casting a wary glance at us, was much more concerned with his/her next meal:

We turned one corner of the trail and saw two white tails bounce off through the bushes.  One of the deer (probably the mother) turned and evaluated us warily before moving her young one off to cover:

We saw a few pairs of what appeared to be female deer.  We guess that they were mother-and-fawn pairs.  With food so scarce in this ecosystem, we think that the deer cannot browse in herds, but must spread further apart, and it would be natural for family members to stay together:

We came across a kind of trap that we have not seen before.  It clearly has been disused for some years.  Our best guess is that its purpose was to catch feral hogs or javelina with bait.  We are not sure about this because we saw absolutely no evidence of grubbing by those creatures that are otherwise ubiquitous near the Big Bend in Northern Florida.

Some signs on the trail warned of alligators, so we were alert whenever we approached a pond.  It was lucky we were, because, as we approached one small pond, a great blue heron flew off in a tiff.  It landed on the opposite side of the pond and paused long enough for us to get a photo:

Now for one last sample of fauna in the park, and this one seems to be a mystery.  Lying in the middle of the trail was this skull, which we had trouble identifying.  We thought, from the two canines and long sets of molars, that it might be a coyote, but the snout looked longish for a coyote.  As it happened, park rangers were working nearby and we showed them this photo.  They opined that it was probably an alligator.  We accepted that, until we got back to the RV and looked at photos of alligator skulls, only to discover that alligators appear to have exclusively sharp, short canine-type teeth along their jaws -- and this mystery beast clearly had molars.  So now we're back where we started. If you know what this is, please give us your thoughts!

We were almost done with our hike when we finally found what we originally expected to find as the main attraction: some wildflowers.  It must be early Spring here, for these two bushes -- curiously growing side by side -- seem to be opening up with their first color of the season:

We stopped for lunch at a picnic table by the park boat ramp, watching a few locals in their activities by the river -- some fishing, some strolling, some rangers dropping by to check the others for valid fishing licenses.  It remained a peaceful scene, and we finished our lunch quietly before stretching out our legs again and heading back to camp.

If today was any indication, we may get a number of wildlife surprises before this week's stay is finished.  Stay tuned.