Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Larger than all of Georgia's barrier islands combined, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge covers 730 square mi of southeastern Georgia and spills over into northeastern Florida. From the air, all roads and almost all traces of human development seem to disappear into this vast, seemingly impenetrable landscape, the largest intact freshwater wetlands in the contiguous United States. The rivers, lakes, forests, prairies, and swamps all teem with seen and unseen life: alligators, otters, bobcats, raccoons, opossums, white-tailed deer, turtles, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, egrets, muskrats, herons, cranes, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and black bears all make their home here. The term swamp hardly does the Okefenokee justice. It's the largest peat-producing bog in the United States, with numerous and varied landscapes, including aquatic prairies, towering virgin cypress, sandy pine islands, and lush subtropical hammocks.