Day 50 – At 7 a.m. it was 61 degrees, cloudy, & very humid. Today was a day we’d been looking forward to – a trip to Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. When we camped at Skidaway Island State Park in 2017, we took a tour of Old Savannah. After the city driving we were looking for some relaxation, so we stopped at Savannah NWR, drove fairly quickly (for our standards) through the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive. We saw then our first Tri-Color Herons, Anhingas, and lots of Alligators. We vowed to come back again & spend a whole afternoon, if not a whole day. It was one thing, in addition to the Georgia portion of the Great Okefenokee Swamp, that we were planning on doing before we had to go home because of my knee. Well, today is the Savannah NWR day.
We checked the weather this morning. For ten days it had gone from big thunderstorms/heavy rain all day to bright sun & no rain at all. The weather forecast today said there would be thunderstorms most of the day. Guess that’s why it was so humid & cloudy. We packed our lunches & our rain jackets and headed out, first to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge. Since the campground wasn’t far from Hilton Head Island, and this NWR was just before crossing over to Hilton Head, we thought, why not? (We got a bound notebook last year at Mingo NWR in Missouri. It lists all National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. & has a place for you to obtain an “official” stamp every time you visit one. Okay, so we are here. Might as well check out the Pinckney NWR and get our stamp.)
The traffic picked up and became pretty heavy. It’s Saturday & everyone was heading for Hilton Head Island. Way before we got there, big towers appear by the roadway, advertising Beach Homes & Lake Homes on the Island, and you can visit model homes right there! The stores changed from the normal shopping centers lining the highway to swank signs with palm tree-lined entrances to Walmart, Olive Garden, and Kroger’s Market. Seriously?! That was enough for us! We turned off at the entrance to Pinckney NWR, also palm tree-lined, and drove in. It was crowded. The parking lot was full. There was a trail for walking & riding bicycles. No Visitor’s Center to get an “official” stamp in our book. We turned around & drove back out, happily going to Savannah NWR and skipping Hilton Head Island entirely.
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At Savannah NWR we stopped first at the Visitor’s Center. No rain yet, we must hurry to the wildlife drive! We watched the movie on the NWR, gazed in awe at the award-winning wildlife woodcarvings on display, and got our stamp in our book. AND they also stamped us for Pinckney. Oh happy day, LOL. We drove to the wildlife drive and began the “tour”.
Savannah NWR, Hardeeville, SC
The Auto Tour is a little over 4 miles long & the speed limit is 20 MPH. We laughed when we saw that! MUST we drive that fast? (Our average speed on one of these drives is foot-not-on-pedal-just coasting, 1 MPH?) We weren’t the only people just cruising along, anxious to see whatever they could find. There were many NWR visitors today & often we encountered traffic jams when cars lined up to look at and/or photograph Alligators. At one point, Rob & I were stopped taking pictures of birds: he was taking pictures of the secretive Green Heron; I had my lens on a Great Blue Heron posing close by. A large man was stopped a ways behind us & he came running up, his equally-large wife puffing along as best she could: with heavy southern accent he says to his wife, “These people are lookin’ at birds! I came to see them gators!” LOL.
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We pulled over for lunch. After eating, Rob saw that people had lined up beyond us & were excitedly taking pictures. He went that way; I stayed because I saw some flowers, a draw for me. As I took some shots of the flowers, there was rustling in the bushes. Hark – a Little Blue Heron is hunting for lunch. Rob got picture of a mother Alligator & 35 baby Alligators. (I heard one excited refuge visitor proclaim there were hundreds of babies – who knows?)
We continued on. You could always tell when an Alligator had been spotted because everyone was lined up in the waiting line to view it. The people were so excited. It was great. (We smugly thought to ourselves that our next 12 days would be spend in the swamp with Alligators everywhere.) We got more pictures of various birds, including nesting Carolina Wrens, Gallinules, Anhingas, Glossy Ibis, Cormorant, and of course, Alligators. Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex: 694 Beech Hill Lane, Hardeeville, SC 29927; (843) 784-2468; http://www.fws.gov/refuge/savannah.
It took us 3 ½ hours to go 4 miles. A perfect day! It did not rain & there were not thunderstorms although it was looking a little threatening out at times. The high today was 73 degrees. Because the weather forecast had been for rain & thunderstorms, we only left the RV windows open a little. When we walked in once we returned home, Java let us know she was hot!
Java. Too hot!!
Camp Lake Jasper RV Park: 44 Camp Lake Drive, Hardeeville, SC 29927; (843) 784-5200; www.camplakejasper.com. Check in 1 p.m.; check out 12 noon. Quiet time 10 p.m.-7 a.m. When in this area previously, we’d camped at Skidaway Island State Park, located below Savannah, GA. This was a great Park, but it was very popular & a campsite on the weekend is almost impossible to get without a reservation made much in advance. We decided to try an independent campground above Savannah, in South Carolina. We’d stay here again. Although reservations in advance are recommended, it is close to Savannah NWR, the main reason we’d stay here. They offer full hook-ups and reasonably-spaced campsites for an independent. $55 + 15% in taxes per night; Good Sam Club gives you $10 off per night. (The very nice lake front campsites cost more.) Unfortunately, a nearby camper unleashed their young children to play by our campsite, but other than that, the stay was just fine. There are 105 campsites with more planned for the future in a quiet area conveniently located off I-95, but you cannot hear the traffic. It was only about 15 miles to Savannah and 20 miles to Hilton Head Island. The campground was either fairly new or recently bought & fixed up – clean and well-kept up. There were laundry facilities & a general store, and it was adjacent to the Sgt. Jasper Park & Lake.
We loved Savannah. We on south afterwards to Titusville and really enjoyed Merrit Island. From the sound of your choices of places to visit I think you would like Merritt island as well. Also, in between those two we stayed in St. Augustine. Couldn’t get in to Anastasia island, but will return for a chance another time . Ended up at Indian River RV which runs from the river on one end to the Atlantic on the other end.
How do you get an “ad supported blog?” I’d like to try one with my good writing s, but your pointers on how to set up would help.
Glad u r back on road,
Dan Bain Gayle’s friend from CDS COSTCO.
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Hi Dan,
Thanks for the tip about Merritt Island, we’ll definitely check it out next time through. Where did you stay in Savannah? As far as creating an ad supported blog, I don’t have any experience doing that. I did Google a bit and found some tips on how to do it that I would probably use if we decided to go that way. https://en.support.wordpress.com/monetize-your-site/