Hiking the Black Creek Trail

This past weekend, my fiancée and I had the chance to go hiking on the Black Creek Trail in southern Mississippi.  I had read that this was the best hiking trail in Mississippi, so I was excited to check it out.  It was a very pleasant hike, with the temperature in the upper 60s and plenty of sunshine.  The terrain varied from the pine savanna common to southern Mississippi to cypress swamps and of course to the Black Creek.

Black Creek is the only designated Wild and Scenic River in Mississippi and is named for its tannic acid colored water which is referred to as "blackwater" down here.  The creek itself was muddied up from recent rains, but the small feeder creeks featured the tea colored water which reminded me of rivers such as the Fox River in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

We enjoyed the wildlife, plants, and flowers along the way, and I snapped a few pictures.  The bigleaf magnolia leaves were particularly interesting to me.  I'd love to see what the trees look like later in the year. 

It was a very nice day.  We accessed the trail at Janice Landing north of Wiggins, MS and headed west.  If I do it again I'll try a new section of the trail.  We had to hike several miles before we found the river, and the trail was much nicer after that.  When the river is lower, there are numerous sandbars that provide convenient campsites.  The trail is 41 miles total and would make a very nice backpacking trip which I would like to do someday.

Me and my hiking buddy