Camping at Ochlockonee River State Park
We have been home 3 weeks since our October trip and are heading out on a short trip to the pan handle area of Florida to visit a friend. I selected Ochlockonee River State Park as our first stop based on a couple of different factors. Typically, the first and most important factor is distance. We don’t want to exceed 350 miles and a more comfortable number of miles is 250-300 (yep, it takes us a long time to get somewhere when we don't travel a lot of miles each day)..
We opted NOT to take Interstate 75. First, yeah - interstates are supposed to be faster but...sometimes the scenic route is more fun and Interstate 75 is locked up with traffic. I'll go with fun and scenic - going through the small towns along the way - although we did take the Suncoast Expressway and bypassed a lot of towns till Crystal River.
Other than distance, the other factor is ‘something interesting’ about the location we are stopping at. In this case, in reviewing the book I purchased on Florida State Parks – this one boasted being a natural, unspoiled Florida park that is off the beaten path.
Ochlockonee River State Park is a scenic river park with more than 543 acres that offer views of natural Florida along the Gulf Coast. There are a lot of pine trees in this park. Nature trails run along the river and wind through the pine flatwoods. There is a boat ramp for small (smallish) boats, also has a unique launch area for kayaks/canoes including the ability for handicapped people to launch.
Ah, we have finally arrived! It has taken us a bit to get here as we travelled down memory lane of driving up a good portion of this - up the Suncoast Parkway (toll road), over to US 19/98, oh - there's the turnoff for Steinhatchee (another blog post coming soon), and eventually down into a new area where this park resides.
After checking in with the ranger station, we see a the road that will take us the half mile to the campground. Lots and lots of pine trees here.
Evidence of a relatively recent controlled burn (at least I hope it was a controlled burn). As I see this, I think that there are 2 times that I don't want to be here - 1) when they are doing a controlled burn (or any burn) and 2) very soon after they do the burn as it won't have much green in the understory of the pines.
Park Details
Ochlockonee River State Park
Address: 429 State Park Road, Sopchoppy Highway, Sopchoppy, Florida 32358
Park 805-962-2774
Park 8am until sunset, 365 days a year
Park Office 8am until sunset
Cell phone service (Verizon) was good at this park
We have arrived to the right turn for the campground.
First glimpse of the campground area as we turned right.
Lots of trees and variety in the campsite sizes. I noticed that campsite #11 is very small pull through - maybe good for a tent or a van camper but it's pretty small and also on the turn of the loop.
Campsite Details
30 amp and 50amp electric
Picnic table, Fire ring
Dirt/leaves campsite
Our campsite was mostly shade, campsite #29. We were the last campsite on a one way loop – so we were able to view the various campsites while we drove to ours. Ours was a nice campsite – close distance to the dumpster and the bath house. There is only one bath house for the 30 campsites at this campground.
Water/Electric
Dump station near the entrance to the park
Back in sites (a few pull through sites)
Checkin is 3pm
Checkout is 1pm
Quiet hours 10pm - 7am
A couple of notes about this campground that are pertinent.
- The majority of these campsites are NOT viable for a larger rig – say 30 feet or larger (although I am guessing here)
- The campground is dark – there are no unnecessary lights in the campground. The only lights are from the bath house and whatever people put on their specific campsites.
- The campground was quiet – very peaceful
- They do not have laundry facilities at the bathhouse
The sun is getting low as we just completed our setup of the campsite. Often times when we are only staying one night we make decisions on:
1. Should we keep the truck hooked up to the camper? (less work in the morning)
2. Should we just use the picnic table and not bother with chairs, screen room, etc?
In general, the less we take out, the less we have to deal with the next day. But for this 1 night stay, we did unhook the truck because we didn't know how close things were together and I wanted to check out a few areas based on the park map. In retrospect, I could have just walked since everything was fairly close together.
White Squirrel
One of the unique things about this park is the ‘white squirrel’. I noticed the brochure when checking in at the ranger station. We only stayed the 1 night – but I definitely hope to be back to this park. I mention to the ranger when I saw the brochure, “Huh, maybe we will see the white squirrel while we are here” – he didn’t seem to think it was a high probability (maybe because we weren’t going to be there even 24 hours).
But…..luck was on my side! Typically, after we setup camp, the dogs and I will go for a short walk in the campground and establish where the bath house is, whether they have laundry, and where the dumpster/trash is at – better to know before I need any of these things.
And as we passed in front of the bath house, there it was! I couldn’t believe it. Just hanging out on the tree just like those gray squirrels we have here at home. Whew, the dogs didn’t notice it. I had my camera – I snapped some photographs quickly. Then got the dogs back to our campsite without them seeing it. After dumping the dogs back to Jim at the campsite, I walked back quietly and took some more photographs.
Wow, I got lucky – that is the only time during our stay that I saw the white squirrel.
“The white squirrels here at Ochlockonee River State Park are another color variant of this variable species of squirrel and are not albino. The most common sightings of white squirrels are of isolated individuals with a completely white coat and dark eyes, a condition known as leucistic.” – Brochure from ranger station
After dark
As the sun went down, I realized we are pretty far away from just about anything. This might just be a great place for the night sky. Wow, we are going to get lucky here – the campground doesn’t have any unnecessary lights. No street lights, no other lights, just darkness.
It’s time to go check out the night sky – being that we were at the end of the campground loop, we didn’t have to walk very far to get some open sky.
I did take a photograph of the campground area from where we were standing, on the main road just past our campsite, #29.
The bright white light is coming from the bath house - the other lights are coming from various campgrounds but you can see - it's dark!
Day use area, hike along the river on the River Trail
Since we were only at this park for one night and one morning, I decided that I would look at what would be the best thing to check out during the day time. We took a short drive (in retrospect we could have walked) down the road to the day use area. This is where the Dead River and the Ochlockonee River meet. On the map provided by the park, they said “Scenic Point”. Either way, it was a nice area and we had it all to ourselves. No one else was up and about – very peaceful to check out the area when you have it to yourself.
As we approached the river and what appeared to be a boat ramp for kayaks, canoes – I looked up in the dead tree and saw the wood pecker. Wow, score two – this is the wood pecker that is not in very many areas – “Red headed woodpecker” (the real one).
I have learned that if there is a dead tree around, that's a good place to look for wood peckers.
The trail along the river will take you past the campground down to the boat ramp.
I didn't see much in terms of lights in this area either, so this could be another great spot to view the night sky - looking more east in this photograph.
We didn’t walk that far (.7 miles) but perhaps in the future. In looking at this area you can view the sky in the south – perfect to view the Milky Way. I will be looking to go back to this area when the Milky Way is up and visible (February-October for our location).
If we had been at this location when the sun was rising - this would have been perfect as the sun would be right under the canopy of this tree.
Some of this trail is pretty wide open - not a lot of shade - so keep this in mind when you start out - take water and be prepared to be in the sun a good portion of the time.
The girls all take a few minutes to rest after doing some walking on the trail - it's pretty warm today. Abby (black/white), Rue (not looking) and Ollie (looking straight at the camera).
So now we are ready to hop in the truck and go check out the boat ramp that is a short distance before you get to the campground. Everyone came, except Ollie. Ollie is just not that crazy about the 'car ride' part of our trips and sometimes she thinks it's a good idea to 'take a stand' on not getting into the truck. We had zero intention of leaving without her, but wondered how far we would go before she would decide to come....we were all in the truck and it was running - and then she came (just before I got out and went to get her).
The boat ramp
And the kayak/canoe launch
After we got back to our campsite, the red headed woodpecker (probably not the same one) was there in the tree by our camper. I got some more photographs of it.
Jim mentioned that he heard owls outside the camper window when he was trying to sleep. I guess I slept through it. Jim said they were very loud and making a lot of noise.
We didn’t see the red-cockaded woodpecker that is endangered and nests in the cavities of the park’s mature pine trees.
And this brings us to the end of this particular stop on our trip - this is definitely a park I want to go back to. It's close enough that we can do the drive in a day, has great dark skies, wildlife and quiet. Quiet, a perfect time for Ollie to take a snooze....
To view all the photographs from this stop on our trip, click here.
MAP
