A silence broken only by alligators gliding through tea-colored water. The darkness of a night without any man-made light.
People come here to step out of the daily drill of ringing phones and honking cars.
They come here to step back, if you will, to a more primitive place,'' said Jim Burkhart, refuge ranger. Ninety percent of the Okefenokee refuge is classified as the highest level of wilderness area. The Okefenokee refuge wilderness is home to hundreds of rare plants and federally listed endangered species, including the bald eagle, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the wood stork and the indigo snake. It is also home to many state-listed endangered species and to plants and animals that are candidates for listing. It is a unique and intact freshwater ecosystem, one of the oldest and most well preserved in the country.