National Great Outdoors Month is celebrated in June and serves as a reminder to enjoy and appreciate our state parks and wildlife refuges. This observation, begun in 1998, encourages us to explore our parks and enjoy the beauty that awaits us in our natural world.
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Lake Jocassee – Here, standing on a rock outcropping, Rudy and Jim analyze Lake Jocassee’s geographic features, along with the variety of trees found around the lake: White Pine, Virginia Pine, and...
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Old Farm Road – While walking down this old farm road, Rudy and Jim come across a Sweetgum tree which has been chewed by a beaver. The beavers in the area have built a dam, thus creating a new habitat...
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Poor Robin’s Plantain is another common flower found in the area. A Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly is seen gathering nectar from one of these flowers, and Rudy and Jim revisit the Black Rat Snake...
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Close to the waterfall, Bluet flowers, Saxifrage, Butterweed, Spicebush, Mountain Buckeye trees, Dutchman’s Pipe vines, Wild Yam, Partridgeberry, and Long Spurred violets dominate cool, moist...
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Foothills Trail – In one of the oak trees in a drop off area, Rudy and Jim spot a coiled up Black Rat Snake.
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At this next stop, close to the water, we see an abundant variety of flowering plants: Mayapples, Foamflowers, Showy Orchis, Little Sweet Betsy, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Allegheny Spurge.
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At this next stop, we see Shortia plants, Rhododendron, Eastern Hemlock, Fraser Magnolia, and Maroon Sweetshrub.
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Today, Rudy and Jim visit Jocassee Gorges, known all over the world for its mix of hardwood and conifer trees, along with its variety of wild flowers. At this first stop, Rudy and Jim come across...
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Right beside Rudy and Jim, we see several vines: Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, and Blackberry. Some of the trees in the area are Black Birch and Tuliptree. Some Wild Strawberry can be seen as well...
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Here, Rudy and Jim find several of nature’s recyclers: a Morel mushroom, and a millipede. In a nearby tree, we find an Eastern Phoebe bird, which is an insect eater.
