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‍Meet the belted kingfisher: one of our year-round residents. It would be unusual not to see one of these graceful birds anytime you’re out on the lake. Most often, you’ll hear one long before you catch sight of it. These agile fish eaters are amazing acrobats. Their wedge-shaped heads, waterproof feathers and powerful flight muscles…

More Winter ‍ Snow, sleet, freezing rain, just as predicted. Crunchy slush, freezing soon to treacherous slickness on secondary roads, as predicted. We’ll go not further than Lake Jocassee, where wispy gray water vapor rises mysteriously into snow falling from equally gray sky. The puffs of snow in trees are so light they barely bend…

‍There is such peace at Jocassee this time of year. The silence of the lake is penetrating. And yet there is a certain unavoidable sadness to this time of year as well. Most any drive through the mountains makes evident the uniform youth of the forest throughout the Gorges, which was clearcut in the early…

Winter ‍2025 begins, brittle cold. Wind blows through bare branches in fierce, gusty attempts to knock them loose from trees. This night is incrementally shorter than the one before, the night to follow will be clear, and dark, with stars that sear bright white pinpoints through frigid air. Dawns are golden, afternoons are crisp and…

This time of year, we share this amazing place with an incredible number of winter birds. On Christmas Eve, we counted 59 ring-billed gulls and 13 loons scattered across the main basin and floating on or flying around the buoy at the hydro intakes. Exploring the lower lake, we headed up the Thompson River channel….

Christmas Cruise‍ On a day when so many celebrate the birth of a savior, we navigate a boat around the rocky shoreline of Lake Jocassee. Time and erosion have weathered long, deep seams into the rock; freeze and thaw cycles have wedged into seams until large chunks of rock loosen and fall into this clear…

‍The slower we go, the more we see. The tranquility of Jocassee in winter, the silence, the sound of water falling, not motors running, the sounds of wild birds who’ve joined us here for winter. Sometimes I remember it is why I live here. It’s an entirely magical time of year, a time and a…

Oh, the chilly windy weather is frightful, but the company is so delightful, so as long as we take it slow,  let it blow, let it blow, let it blow!  Merry Christmas 2U2‍ What a day! Birds, everywhere. One herring gull, brownish, big as a turkey, looking a little awkward surrounded by dainty, agile Bonaparte’s…

  “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt Click to order: https://jocasseelaketours.com/gift-certificates/

Vacation, week 2‍ Two weeks. In the grand scheme of things, closing shop for two weeks doesn’t sound like much, but it has been enough. Enough time to listen to leaves crunching underfoot on long walks, to the song of streams swollen by recent welcome rain, to the call of owls in the night. Enough…

The last week in November each year signals a transition for the JLT crew. As we head into the cooler season, we take a couple of well-deserved weeks to rest before gearing back up for the coming year. Our resident common loons are arriving now, just in time to celebrate the holidays with us, and…

Squirrel, birds, dog‍ It’s Saturday Happy Hour at the bird food bar, and all our feathered friends are here. The bouncer is a gray squirrel watching placidly from the banister, front feet tucked demurely against his chest, tail flexed across his back like a blanket. The birds behave, take turns, flutter in, pick a seed,…