Rangers and turtles and Snakes, oh my

At the Sardis Dam overlook

As Dr. Phillips was showing us the Sardis Dam emergency spillway, a facililty built in the 1930s for flood control, out of seemingly nowhere a bona fide park ranger showed up, ready and willing to speak with us about the facility where he's worked for decades. 

United States Army Corps of Engineers/US National Parks ranger Cowen Hunter was kind enough to take time out of his Sunday morning to chat with us about Sardis Dam

Sardis Dam, by the numbers

Neil and Bryce, looking out at the lower lake at Sardis Dam picnic area

We made a picnic-lunch stop at the lower lake (with a still warm grill to warm our hands over), then on to the Sardis Lake nature trail: A boardwalk through a swampy cypress and hardwood forest. Although we were told the action would probably be in the tree canopy overhead (migrating birds and woodpeckers), the big hit for us were the snake and turtle sightings.

Cypress trees and cypress knees

The nature trail boardwalk

One of the friends we met along the nature trail, a mild-mannered water snake, seemed unimpressed with us.

A yellow-bellied water snake, just hanging

Gulp. More Sardis wildlife, up close and on the van window. (This guy was about two inches across —but we were assured he posed no threat to life or limb.)

Sardis Lake spillway (which we learned is actually the Sardis Lake OUTLET; the spillway is where we encountered the ranger. But locals insist on calling this the spillway because it looks like that's what it should be called.)

Ava, watching the roaring water of the Sardis outlet