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Greetings!
Welcome to the Blue Wall Weekly, your source for what's going on outside along the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment. Feel free to share your own photos, videos, and adventures along the Blue Wall by sending them to the email address at the bottom of the page, and we'll do our best to make you (locally) famous!
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February 25
We drift at idle speed into a small cove on Lake Jocassee. Deep in shadow, a curtain of water dribbles off a rock overhang, splattering on rock, spilling into cold lake. A cover of glossy leaves--rosy red from winter chill--carpets the steep hillside beside the falling water. Binoculars up, we scan for flowers. It’s the season of ‘first flowers’ along the base of the Blue Wall… first hepatica blooms, first trout lily blooms, first rue blooms, and there, tucked demurely under the shade of a glossy red leaf with its sharply toothed margins, we spy the first Oconee bell bloom. In the Jocassee Gorges Oconee bells serve as the harbinger of spring, leading us out of winter’s solitude into spring’s explosion of color. It’s a big deal around here, since the entire native population of Oconee bells grow within the confines of the Jocassee Gorges, and everyone wants to come out and see the Bells bloom, as evidenced by this week’s calendar. ~K
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 Shortia galacifolia, aka Oconee bell, from
a bygone year
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SPECIAL EVENTS
WITH JOCASSEE LAKE TOURS
First Sunday Nature Expedition w/ Jay Mager
Hilliard Falls Hike with Rocky Nation
March 20: 9:00 AM-4:30 PM Call to Book!
FISHING ADVENTURES WITH CAPT. ZACH
PRIVATE TOURS ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE!
Taking flight
Alnus serulata (smooth alder)
STATE PARK EVENTS
Oconee Station State Historic Site
Thurs-Sun: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM
Guided Tours - Saturdays & Sundays: 1:00-5:00 PM
Blue Ridge Backpackers
March 2: 8:00 AM-3:00 PM
Let's meet at Ravens Cliff falls trailhead Parking lot, carpool to Sassafras Mountain and start our hike from there. This is not a beginner hike. You must be able to hike at least 2.5 mph in order to keep time.
Raven Cliff Falls, photo by AllTrails
OTHER OUTDOOR EVENTS
Palmetto Conservation
March 1- December 31
The 21 Hike Challenge is a way to encourage everyone to get out on the Palmetto Trail and explore South Carolina, all within 21 hikes of your choice.
SCUMS
March 1: 6:00 9:00 PM
Join Tradd Cotter with his annual talk on finding morels. Tradd always entertains and educates us with current weather data and new information, so join us and learn and laugh! We miss you!
Morels...from a handful to a mouthful!
Lake Conestee Nature Preserve
March 4: 3:30 PM
We will explore the wetlands for the breeding grounds of the Spotted Salamander and learn more about what makes these animals unique.
SC Botanical Garden Events
March 4: 4:30-5:30 PM
Each month we will visit a different part of South Carolina and learn about its soils and climate, plants and animals, and the people who made that place home.
Eranthis hyemalis Winter Aconite, SCBG
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WEEKLY EVENTS
WITH JOCASSEE LAKE TOURS
EVERY SUNDAY AFTERNOON TOUR
CALL OR BOOK ONLINE
TO RESERVE SEATS
THIS WEEK ON LAKE JOCASSEE
MARCH 1, 2021
I spent a portion of my Saturday exploring the lake with five sisters who came to Jocassee on one of their outings for their annual get-together. While watching loons and ring-billed gulls in a feeding frenzy in the Horsepasture River channel, we all spotted this root flare tucked inside a cave in the bank. Marveling at it & speculating about how it got there; did the current move it or was it by human hand, etc., Cathy spoke up and said it reminded her of an anhinga taking flight. What do you see? Directly to the left of it was this beautiful smooth alder, Alnus serrulata; displaying both male (long yellow) and female (short red) catkins. In addition to this we saw 2 adult and 2 juvenile bald eagles, 8 wood ducks, kingfishers and grebes (Horned and Pied-billed). What a day! It’s amazing how quickly 4 hours goes by when you get caught up in nature’s beauty. If you’re searching for places to go and things to do with family and friends, consider Jocassee. I promise you won’t be disappointed. ~Sheryl White
Blue Ridge Backpackers
March 13: 11:00 AM-March 14: 12:00 PM
Blue Ridge Backpackers
March 20: 10:00 AM-March 21: 4:00 PM
GNHA
March 27: 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
OTHER OUTDOOR EVENTS
FOJ
March 8: 12:00-2:00 PM
FOJ
March 13
Lake Conestee Nature Preserve
March 13: 9:30 AM-12:00 PM
SCNPS
March 16: 6:30-8:00 PM
Silent Hikes with Jean Malmgren
March 20
Foothills Trail Conservancy
March 20: 9:00 AM-12:00 PM
Foothills Trail Conservancy
March 20: 9:00 AM-4:30 PM
SC Botanical Garden Events
March 19: 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
BORROWED GLIMPSES
Grayish reproductive discs called 'apothecia' on foliose lichen, photo by Tricia Kyzer
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DID YOU KNOW?
Robert Marsham, the founding father of modern phenological recording, was a wealthy landowner who kept systematic records of "Indications of spring" on his estate at Stratton Strawless, Norfolk, from 1736. These took the form of dates of the first occurrence of events such as flowering, bud burst, emergence or flight of an insect.
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ABOUT THE BLUE WALL
Spanning three states (North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and encompassing 859,000 acres, the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment, known as the 'Blue Wall' by Native Americans, contains some of the highest natural diversity of rare plants and animals found anywhere in the world.
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Phone: 864-280-5501
Jocassee Lake Tours Depart from the Main Dock at Devils Fork State Park
PLEASE CALL 864-280-5501 AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE TO RESERVE YOUR SEATS!
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Enjoy this Lake Jocassee peaceful hideaway.
CAMP GLAMP!
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Love Jocassee? Help protect and preserve the beauty of Lake Jocassee and the Jocassee Gorges by joining FOJ!
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.png) Visit Oconee Convention and Visitors Bureau
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Your Portal to Paradise!
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Lake Jocassee
&
Lake Keowee
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