Devils Fork State Park

Date: Friday, November 26, 2010
Map: Link
Trails: Bear Cove, Oconee Bells
Distance: 3.0 miles
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Rating: 3 out of 5

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I headed out to Devils Fork State Park. The weather was cool and overcast ("gloomy"). At least it had stopped raining. I went up Hwy 133 and turned left onto Hwy 11, then followed the brown park signs to the entrance. I paid the $2 fee and parked at the trailhead for Bear Cove. It took about 45 minutes to get here from the house.

I started hiking around 2:30. I soon realized it would be difficult to stay on the trail, as the path was entirely obscured by newly fallen leaves. Luckily there are blazes frequently marked on trees along the trails. Personally I think white is a poor color choice for a blaze, since many trees have white marks on them naturally. At least they were marked, though, and the trails appear to be very well-maintained.

After moving through mostly oak, hickory, and pine forest, as the trail reaches a peninsula jutting out into Lake Jocassee, the forest becomes dense with mountain laurel. Really, this is my favorite feature of this trail. There are a couple of spots where you can easily access sand beaches, which is very nice in the summer.

Completing the loop and returning back to the car, I decided to drive over to the other trail, the Oconee Bells Nature trail. It is a 1-mile loop, and I got started at 3:30. Although short, this is a really great trail. There is so much to see in a short distance: bridges, streams, narrow twisting trails, a bog/pond, a small waterfall, rocky overhangs, and the namesake Oconee Bells themselves.

If you look at the photo above, the green groundcover along the banks of the stream is the Oconee Bells plant. Up close, the leaves look like a kind of ivy with jagged edges. In early spring, it blooms. It is very rare, and this is one of the few places it grows.

I returned to the car at 4:00pm. Despite the gloomy weather, an enjoyable hike.