Driving Tour

Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive

(Jasper County)

TrailMap

 
Description: This is a one way driving trail, which winds through the refuge. You will pass through an area once devoted to rice farming and is now the home for a wide variety of birds and animals. Great horned owls are abundant as well as red-winged blackbirds, turkeys, bald eagles, bobolinks, and wide range of warblers, and of course the wading birds such as egrets and herons. As you pass by bald cypress, tupelo, and saw palmetto trees, you may encounter animals such as raccoons, deer, feral hogs, but the stars of the show are the alligators and some very large ones live here.

Length: 5.0 miles (6.2 miles if you use the highway to complete a loop)

Fee: No fee.

Directions: From I-95 at Hardeeville, drive south on US 17. After 4.0 miles SC 170 joins US 17. Stay on SC 170 when it forks to the right. The refuge headquarters is 2.5 miles on the right, and the trail starts on the left, directly across the highway.

Camping: No Camping.

Information:  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1000 Business Center Dr., Suite 10, Savannah, Georgia, 31405. Telephone: 912-652-4415. Fax: 912-652-3485.