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LOON WEEK! What a week. 5 days of near perfect weather at the first of March studying winter loon behavior with loon biologist extraordinaire Dr. Jay Mager, ten very eager loon lovers, and professional staff from three loon conservation organizations from breeding lakes in the northern states. Six long, slow hours each day watching loons…

Bud Burst Oh, little bud. I see your hormones have been swirling. You’ve siphoned sweet warm rain through earth-bound root, swelling harder against protective scales until, now, finally, you have burst free. There is no turning back. Will you be flower? Will you be leaf? Do you understand that youth and tenderness will leave you…

Poet Mary Oliver writes, “the leaf has a song in it.” On a recent weekend Jocassee Wild Outdoor Education guides and volunteers spent two days listening for that song. Guides became students and set out to explore the gorges with the eyes of true Wild Children—noticing, wondering about, and connecting what we found. We role-played…

Flowers Standing tall over a pair of thick and mottled leaves (if you call three inches “tall”), a wild trout lily flower bends toward ground like a hanging lantern, yellow petals curved back, long maroon stamens reaching down in search of a trout lily bee. A few feet away, bloodroot shines stark white flowers skyward,…

  Refreshing! A tour on Lake Jocassee is amazing this time of year, when late winter melts into early spring. The mountains are resplendent with cool fresh air punctuated by the chatter of pine warblers and the call of a distant redtail hawk. The lake sparkles in the afternoon sunshine, amplifying the hoots of the…

Close ups Tops of broken pine trees lie across uprooted oaks like grieving relatives at a funeral, throwing themselves across the dearly departed. The 2020s have been rough on trees. Tornados have skipped through the escarpment. Late in 2024 a water-logged hurricane toppled oaks, blowing wide holes in the tree canopy. Now, in 2026, an…

  Hopefully you had a chance to get outside this past week and enjoy the warmth and beauty of this spring-like weather. Here on the lake and in the classroom, training continues for the coming season. Outside, subtle changes are happening. Flower buds are swelling on the Oconee Bells; male catkins on tag alders are…

February Firsts Mild air temperatures—the first of 2026—stopped by for a brief visit during this second half of February, and nature is celebrating! First bloom (for me) is a single, hot pink phlox flower on a ditch bank, closely followed by fat yellow buds unfolding on neighborhood daffodils. Red maples show off their first blush…

    At Jocassee Lake Tours, our guides train year-round to give you the very best experience possible on Lake Jocassee. Most of that training focuses on the wonders of the Jocassee Gorges so we can share them with you. But some of it focuses on you. This week, 13 of our guides completed certification…

Friday On a lazy afternoon at the Devils Fork boat ramp on Lake Jocassee, there’s not a lot of action. No geese, no loons in sight, no fishermen around but for a couple trying their luck from shore. The park is on fire today: a controlled burn to eliminate the massive amount of woody fuel…

There are things that can only be seen in winter, and there are things that can only be seen in the mind’s eye. The bare branches of the oak and poplar allow glimpses of the tall waterfalls and cascades tumbling down the Whitewater River Gorge. Bundled up against the cold, we’re idling in the boat…

February For the southern hemisphere, February is a sultry, sticky month, but on our side of the equator February is third base on the way to spring. For all twenty-eight days, nights grow incrementally shorter, buds on trees and shrubs grow incrementally fatter, sun creeps incrementally higher in the sky, birds and butterflies feel that…