Goose Creek Campground

Hiking, fishing, camping and pigmy rattlers at Goose Creek State Park

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What's pink, petite and poisonous, yet so prized that people would drive from Pennsylvania to eastern North Carolina, just to take a peek at it?

The pigmy rattlesnake.

For people who go out of their way to avoid snakes of any kind, it's hard to imagine an 18-inch reptile could be a tourist attraction. But Goose Creek State Park Ranger Kevin Bishof said the creature's unusual coloring makes it a gem to snake enthusiasts.

"With this phase of a particular color, it does bring a lot of people really, literally thousands of miles," said Bischof, who answered questions about the snake in a program of education at the center of the park in June "People travel to eastern North Carolina just to check that little snake rose from their list."

The pygmy rattlesnake, a protected species in North Carolina, is from several southern states including South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and west to Texas. Toxic, but generally considered too small to be fatal, pygmy rattlesnakes do more of a buzzing rattle.Rattles on their tails are too small to make much noise.

But there is little noise to the snake itself. This is because the roses, sometimes called pygmy rattlesnake Carolina, are thought to live in just three counties - Beaufort, Hyde and Pamlico.

"I had people come down here from Pennsylvania, New Jersey," said Bischof. "It's hard to believe for many people, but it really is."

The appearance of out of state tourists in Goose Creek is a surprise even to Bischof, who said that people who live a few miles have not yet discovered the park.

“Not a lot of people know about it,” he said. “I would venture to say we get almost more visitors from Greenville than we do Washington, N.C. Some people in Washington really don't know that we're here.”

Opened in the mid 1970s, the park, in between Washington and Bath in Beaufort County, features fishing, campgrounds, picnic areas, boat ramps and a public access beach along the Pamlico River. Eight miles of hiking trails wind through forests and swamps across the park's 1,300 acres.

There is a $13 fee for overnight camping, but daytime access to both the park, its exhibits and educational programs like the one's listed for July is free. For families on a budget, the price is a bigger attraction than the rare reptile.

Round Lake Campground to stay open and other news ...

To begin with, lots of good news lately, I am going to be selfish and start with one that affects me the most, Round Lake State Forest Campground and the other 22 that were scheduled to close are all going to remain open! Michigan was going to close 23 “underperforming” rustic campgrounds, that isn’t going to happen now. I’m thrilled about that, since I thought that when I took my vacation in the Pigeon River Country last month that it would be my last stay at Round Lake. Round Lake is one of the prettiest campgrounds you’ll ever see, it would have been a shame for it to close.

In other news, there was a forest fire just south of Goose Creek State Forest Campground this week. That is on the upper Manistee River just a few miles west of Grayling, Michigan. Goose Creek is another of my favorite campgrounds, it is actually three campgrounds in one. There is a small state forest campground, a large equestrian area, then a small and very beautiful camping area set aside for kayakers and canoeists. According to the news reports, the fire started on the west side of the Manistee, jumped the river, and burned its way to the northeast. The firefighters were able to contain the fire to around 800 acres or so, between M 72 and CR 612, and along Manistee River Road. I wonder if it has changed the river at all, that is one of the premier areas for fly fishing as far as I am concerned. I love that stretch of river, lots of fish, easy to wade, and very picturesque. I may have to change my plans for the summer around to fit a weekend there into my schedule just to see it for myself.

A little side note about Goose Creek State Forest Campground. When I was the organizer for the large kayaking group, I scheduled one of our outings on the Manistee, planning for us to stay at the small area reserved for river users in the campground overnight. To be sure that was OK and that we didn’t need to make reservations, I called the DNR field office in Grayling to check. The people there had no idea what I was talking about, they didn’t know that there was the small campground there for kayakers and canoeists, they had to research it, and call me back later. The reason I knew it existed was that I had found a very old, very weathered sign about it on the river. There is nothing to denote it from the side people normally see when they drive into the main campground. Maybe I should have kept it my little secret.

In more good news, the state has budgeted 6 million dollars to continue the clean up of the old Zephyr Oil refinery site near Muskegon. You can read a news article about it here . The problem there is contaminated ground water from oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products that leached into the ground. The Michigan DEQ had shut down around half the wells that were pumping the contaminated water out, and was threatening to completely shut down all cleanup operations there because of a lack of funding. That would have been very bad. The site is between the Muskegon river to the south, Bear Creek to the north, and Muskegon Lake to the west. Of course both the Muskegon River and Bear Creek flow into Muskegon Lake, and eventually, Lake Michigan. With the new budget, not only will the pumping of contaminated ground water continue, but there are also plans being drawn up to remove the contaminated soil as well, and fix the problem once and for all. In fact, this isn’t good news, it is fantastic news!

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