Georgia's gateway to the famous Okefenokee Swamp has a new name. Stephen C. Foster State Park is now officially Okefenokee State Park, per the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, with the change taking effect September 1, 2026. The rebrand clears up long-standing visitor confusion (some travellers have even ended up at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in Florida by mistake) and ties the park more closely to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which recently became Georgia's first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since the park is the refuge's western entrance, the new name finally matches the map.
The rename comes with real investment. A campground renovation wrapped up in August 2025, covering more than 50 sites for tents, campers and RVs, one group campground, and nine cottages — with 10 more cottages now under construction. The boat basin got a refresh completed in August 2026, just in time for the park's daily 90-minute ranger-led boat tours through the swamp. Schedules vary, so check ahead. Prefer to go solo? Motorboats, canoes and kayaks are all available to rent. Still in the pipeline but not yet dated: an ADA-accessible kayak launch and a brand-new visitor center.
What hasn't changed is the night sky. Okefenokee has been a certified Dark Sky Park since 2016, and with almost no light pollution you get year-round stargazing, occasional meteors, and views of the Milky Way in summer. The park runs ranger-led stargazing nights, and your best kit is a telescope plus red-lens lamps, timed around the weather.
Daylight hours belong to the swamp. The 0.8-mile Trembling Earth Trail uses a boardwalk to push into the swamp interior, where visitors report deer, owls, wild turkeys and — sometimes — alligators. A short drive away, the Suwannee River Sill is a five-mile dam walk with wetland overlooks and good odds of spotting gators and turtles among the cypress. Anglers do well here too: bowfin, catfish, crappie and bluegill are the usual catches, either from the boat basin or the Sill, or by boat across roughly 15 miles of estuaries and paddling trails.
For road-trippers, the logistics are easy. It's about three hours from Savannah and just over 90 minutes from Jacksonville, Florida, so it pairs well with either city — Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge near Savannah is a solid gator-spotting add-on.
This story suits campers, paddlers and anyone chasing dark skies on the cheap; with new cottages and an expanded boat basin, it's also friendlier than ever for first-timers who'd rather let a ranger do the navigating. Credit: Islands
