I had been here about 15 years ago. In fact my van was caught in a high water rescue. It took 8 hours and about $900 to get me out of the Big Slough Wilderness Area, which is inside the Davy Crocket National Forest. I have been wanting to come back and photograph this area. Hopefully, this time I could get out of here a little cheaper.

My base camp was in a nice park on Ratliff Lake. It is about a half an hour drive from the trail onto the Big Slough Wilderness.

Ratliff Lake in the morning.

I had quite a it if trouble finding the Wilderness . It looks to me that funding had been cut tremendously for the park system. There was no signage, bridges were falling apart and the trails were just not well marked.

One of the better walkways across the swamp

Even that one was not without it challenges!

In the end I got very lost, but wound up doing the trail through the swamp backwards, so every turn was new to me. I think I could have taken better photos were it not for the 1000’s of mosquitoes that just wouldn’t leave me alone even though I had practically bathed in repellent before I left.

It just looks like it's filled with mosquitoes....and it is!

One of the lovelier spots.

What a great adventure AND it didn’t cost me this time an “arm and a leg”, just about a pint of blood.