stephen c. foster state park

The boat was a bit pricey, 64.00 for four hours, but the trails were well marked. Highlight was a visit to Billy's Island. Saw lots of birds and an alligator. There are three entrances and this is one of them.

Nice little get a way! Don't forget to rent a boat and tour the swamp, We had a blast seeing the wildlife up close!

Drove to the park as a day trip and to check out the cabins. Looked at the Eco Lodge first(very nice but located 18 miles from the park) and then drove to the park. The cabins in the park are well maintained and so is the campground. Nature trails are limited to one and it is only 1/2 mile long. The park centers around a small marina with a launch and rentals. Other than the boat tour and boat rentals, activities are limited. If you are looking for peace and quiet, this is your place.

Went to take a boat trip in the swamp. Even though is was 55F that day, saw many alligators and birds. Great Photo Ops! The guide was well informed about the wildlife and plants. You can also rent canoes and camp at the park also. They have a nice gift shop and bathrooms. Food is limited so bring a lunch. There were deer in the parking lot. Another photo OP. Would go again!

We camped in the park overnight. Lovely State Park and very quiet after 9pm. We did a tour of the Okefenokee Swamp in the morning with a State Park Naturalist. It was great to be back in the park as 4 years ago we had torrential rain and saw no wildlife at all. It is a magical place to visit and well worth the $20 to see it. We loved it so much we will be visiting it again tomorrow but by another entrance. I would say that the bathroom facilities by the office, where we booked, were really bad and dirty. There was only one toilet for all the public who arrive to go out in boats and canoes. I would think it should be a priority to improve those facilities by 2015.

This park it great for nature lovers. Bring your camera they have wildlife everywhere. Take the boat tour it is well worth the money.

Rented a canoe for $18 for four hours. Scenery was gorgeous and we saw at least a dozen gators on the way to Billy's island and back. Spent the night in the campground and the animal noises were amazing sounds that we had never heard before. We only spent one day/overnight and felt it was enough time. Do not expect phone reception. Read about bear warnings but never saw any. This was a great trip!

I've been desiring to visit the Okefenokee for a long time, and was able to make a tent camping trip on a weeknight in late October. I had one section of the park all to myself and enjoyed the serenity and quiet. Bud Fuller, the assistant park manager, was very friendly and helpful. He is also frustrated by the strobe light on the radio tower (see RVGirls review) and Bud says they are working with the Federal Aviation Administration requirement to get it removed, as they want to conduct some "black night" stargazing activities.I did a brief solo canoe trip up the length of Billy's Lake and then floated back as the sun was setting. I estimate I saw (and heard) a dozen alligators, some of whom came with 10'-12' feet of the canoe. Bud says they are simply sizing up the aluminum canoe, and it since it's bigger than they are, they'll leave you alone (since I'm typing this, they clearly did.) I also made a sunrise run out the park gate along the state road and surprised a small bear and her cub off in the brush. Same dynamic.... she just watched me and I kept moving at the same jogging pace. Pretty exciting experiences!I actually had fairly reliable AT&T cell phone service from site #48, which was a little disappointing as I hoped to be truly "off the grid" but it made my wife happy that I could check in from time to time :-)

Stephen C. Foster State Park is out in the wild, it's 17 miles from the main highway at a dead end, so don't forget anything!We had booked a two bed cabin as there were 4 of us, 2 couples for 3 nights, we arrived at about 5 pm on the 18 September to find the office closed, no sign of life with the exception of quite a few deer wondering about. We mulled about for a while then decided to knock on one of the cabins that had vehicles parked outside. We then caught sight of a big dog and decided against knocking, so we honked the horn and a guy came out to us. As it turns out he was one of the rangers, his name was Bud, a really pleasant and helpful guy.He went to the office and got us our keys to cabin No 4 and let us in. First impression of the cabin was very good indeed and that was the impression we left with. It was perhaps the best cabin we have stayed in, in any State Park in the US.Once we got settled in and made ourselves at home we ate and drank some then turned in for the night. When we woke we were greeted by the deer and there were quite a few woodpeckers around.During our stay we went on a swamp tour which was excellent. Michael the ranger who did the tour was a very knowledgeable guy and interesting to talk to. He was fresh, he didn't sound like he'd done this hundreds of times before.So all in all it's worth the trip, we all really did enjoy our stay and would thoroughly recommend to one and all.

We just returned from a two night stay at the park and found it a wonderful experience. The cabin was beyond our expectations. We were with another couple and we each had our own full bath and bedroom. The kitchen was fairly well equipped, but you do need to bring paper products for the kitchen. Although the park office has some food, make sure you bring what you need. As others have stated, there is no phone service. We took a sunset cruise and day cruises. The sunset was enhanced with lightning in the distance and being able to see stars without lights is a rare experience. Michael did our day tours and you can tell he really knows the park and enjoys what he does. Although getting there is a bit out of the way, it is well worth it.

This park is only 92 miles from us but it really is in the middle of nowhere. No cell service especially if you have ATT. Heard Verizon is better. You will drive for around 60 minutes on back roads to get there with possibly only 1-2 cars or trucks passing you. On the way up we had a flat tire on the travel trailer. By God's grace it happened at Moniac, GA. This is the only gas station you will find. Stopped to get diesel and heard the hissing on the tire. This part is not related to the park but important none the less. Had we not been at this tiny station and the girl inside calling her boyfriend to help us, we would have still been there. The highway will not allow any pull offs on the shoulders due the the swampy area. Water in ditches everywhere and with NO CELL SERVICE, we could not have even called Geico for a wrecker or help. This was a big lesson to us...not sure yet what we learned but we did!!! LOL!! Actually I know how to change a tire but did learn some tricks from a man that stopped to help. We paid the girl's boyfriend $40 for his help. He was worth $400!!! So on the the state park. This is all happening Friday evening. We do get there before dark but after the office closes at 5pm so you pick a spot and set up and pay in the morning. No problem. We found a nice drive through and set up for the night. The sites are actually very nice. They are grassy and were mowed. Much nicer than sand and dirt or gravel that many state parks have. The bugs were not bad. Only a few mosquitos and a couple of yellow flies. Not bad. So here are the negative things about the park to us. 1. The park rangers were not friendly at all. First time we have ever run in this. No hello when we went to pay the next morning or thank you for the items we bought...really nothing from them. But a hunter walked in and they were very friendly to him. Odd. They were talking about someone had shot "something" and couldn't find it. Great. Hunter season was open in the refuge. Hate that. Isn't a refuge supposed to protect. 2. There is a strobe light at the edge of the campsites that sits about 200 feet in the air on a tower probably for planes. It is disturbing at best. You are in the middle of nowhere and the light flashes on the side of your trailer and is distracting from the stars. 3. There is not a "host" camper at this park. That tells me a lot. This park is too far out for anyone to want to stay any length of time. No medical facilities anywhere near. Nearest larger town is Valdosta 50 miles away. Not close enough in a true emergency for a camp host to live for a while. 4. The ranger on duty Sunday morning driving around in a golf cart would not even look or turn his head to say hello as he drove around. I waved and was right at him...nothing from him. This is a first for us too. 5. On the website, it shows a picture of the office and the boat basin filled with nice jon boats all the way around the basin and looks beautiful. The reality is there were only 1/3 of the boats on premises and of them only 7-8 jon boats had a motor on the boat. The rest of the basin was filled with green algae and not taken care of. Now the positive.1. ABSOLUTELY a big beautiful refuge. Lots of wildlife. Deer wonder through the campsites at night and grazed within 10 feet of you. They are so pretty. Saw wild turkey, otters, many types of large birds. Did not see songbirds which we thought strange. 2. The stars are amazing...just drive out of the gate to view without the strobe light flashing. Will we go back? Probably NEVER to camp but maybe a day trip. Is the park beautiful...YES.

My husband and two boys, 8 and 13, stayed one night at the Stephen C. Foster State Park. I called ahead and arranged a twilight boat tour and gator hunt. It was around 1.5 hrs and was great, but I think you should start the tour around 7:30 and finish with only 20-30 minutes of darkness. After you shine a light on the gators a few times, you are done. We saw amazing wildlife and the park ranger was great. Park gates lock at 10pm - for safety- and it takes about 20 minutes to reach the gate. We stayed in cabin #4. It had full kitchen, table to seat 6, sofa, 2 recliner chairs, TV with basic cable, full bath and 2 bedrooms. sleeps 6 with 3 double beds, screened porch with 4 rocking chairs. Outside grill and picnic table available. No outside fire pits are allowed in this park! No smores :( Take all the food you need since there are limited items at the park office and limited hours. You will have a blast! Don't forget to walk the boardwalk trail.

My 10 year old wanted to do a Man adventure with me this summer at the Okefenokee Swamp. Before I knew it, school already started. However, I wanted to keep my end of the promise. I noticed this Park had a 50% discount on campgrounds all summer. And this is the Western entrance into the swamp and closer to me (from Atlanta). It was a 5.5 hour drive but I didn't know we had such remote places in Georgia. This place was literally in the boonies. No cell phone signal or grocery store within 50 miles! But such a hidden treasure! I shall skip the history of the park or swamp since you can easily Google it. We had gone on a perfect weekend. There were just 3 other campers. The campsites were very clean with water and power hookups. The "comfort station" was sanitized each morning and had plenty of warm water for refreshing baths. At night, it was a magnet for cute, little, green tree frogs that come there to munch on the insects that are attracted to the lights. There were large Stick insects, wild turkies, deer, owls and other wildlife around the campground. The park rangers live near the campgrounds and so it feels safe for the worry worts. The best part was the self guided, motor boat ride into the swamp. Unless you are an Olypian level rower, I would suggest the motor boat in summer as the channels are narrow for the most part, it is stifling hot by late morning (mid to upper 90s and very humid) and you will have to canoe upstream (there is a small current created by the Suwanee river). So, if you are short on time and really want to explore the swamp, a 20hp 4-stroke engine helps! You can always turn the motor off and go manual if you want the exercise or sneak up on wildlife. There are alligators everywhere. Very timid and never wanting a confrontation. There is rich vegetation and wildlife on boths sides of the waterways with white lilies, giant spiders, beautiful butterflies, grey herons, egrets, cormorants and more. We didn't see any blck bears but I hear there are over 400 of them in the swamp. You can realistically cover about 10 miles roundtrip for a day trip, including stopovers for adventures on land (or semi-land). Have fun and remember that your cell phone is pretty much useless for voice or data, just as a camera. However, be careful at the same time, as help will only come in the evening as the rangers do their daily roundups before sunset.

Our pontoon guide was not usually a guide, (I think he was one of the park's managers) but was needed because there were so many visitors the day we were there. He gave an informed tour, had a great sense of humor and had an obvious love for his job and respect for wildlife. Our tour lasted about an hour and a half, and we were shown so much more than just gators. I guess it depends on the time of year, but insects were not even an issue. We want to go back and camp; this area is supposed to be one of the darkest nighttime skies along the east coast (for stargazing).

Yet another destination in my attempt to visit all GA state parks. If you make this trek plan on more than one activity. It is 18 miles off the main road in the Okefenokee Swamp. The trail is nice for a quick hike. There was a lot of forest damage on this trip, from the storm the previous night as well as the fire that was back in 2011. If I had to do this again I would include a pontoon boat tour, but this was a last min. choice to visit and I did not plan well.