It is often said that we can miss the beauty in our own backyard. This was true of the Sisters at St. Francis of Assisi until this past weekend. Just 35 minutes from our home we discovered “Sky Lake” An article published in our local paper, The Commonwealth describes it as; “a hidden gem tucked away in the remote reaches of southern Leflore County and northern Humphreys County.” Near the town of Belzoni, MS, Sky Lake is an old abandoned channel of the Mississippi River. Native Americans are thought to have occupied it thousands of years ago.
The 1,735 ft. boardwalk, which is 12 feet above the forest floor, was completed in 2010. The shallow swamp is home to some of the largest and oldest bald cypress trees on earth. Some are thought to be more than 1,000 years old and are in the same family as the Sequoia and Redwood trees.
Along the boardwalk we learned many interesting facts about the cypress and the area.
The day was overcast and the temperature of about 70, so combined with the humidity we had an ideal day to slowly enjoy God’s nature from the boardwalk.
Surrounded by all of these reflections of God’s beauty in nature we also reflected and pondered the wonder of God’s immensity.
We noticed many things small and large as we walked along the walkway.
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- Cypress knees which are projections of the tree root system and give stability to the tree.
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- Spanish Moss
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- The Cypress has needle like foliage.
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- Resurrection fern growing on the trees.
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- One of several snakes in the water!
We saw the most brilliant warbler flying about the area, but never spotted the alligators or bear!
It didn’t take us long to understand why it is called “Sky Lake”! The reflections were beautiful. It was hard sometimes to see where the tree ended and the water began.
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- Note the water line on the tree stump. This is the amount of water a tree can absorb.
We are sure we will re-visit “Sky Lake” in other seasons of the year to see the changes and to show visitors who travel to our home.
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- Before we left we had to take one more picture to share with you how the cypress log hollows out to provide shelter and homes for many of God’s creatures in the area.