For a while I have talked with my friend, Mike Carver, about riding with him to go take pictures of some tree roots on the Little Satilla River.
Unfortunately, I had not had the chance to do it.
I knew the river was low and there was supposed to be a good bit of rain coming by the weekend. I told him that if we could go, we really need to go.
Mike sent me a text Friday to see if it was a good day. It was, so we went.
We put in at Twin Rivers and went downriver. For anyone who has not done this they don’t know what they are missing.
With the water being low there are so many root systems out of the water. It is quite beautiful.
When we got to the root system that he wanted me to see, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I told Mike it reminded me of something I saw in Jackson Hole, Wyoming called Elk Antler Arch.
It’s where thousands of elk antlers are picked up in and around Yellowstone and weaved together to form an entrance at the Town Square.
As we got closer we wandered about how many different critters have probably been in and out of this huge root mass including snakes. The whole time I was taking pictures the closer we got.
As we were getting very close I asked Mike if he saw the snake laying on one of the roots on the left side. He did not until it finally moved. It was a small water snake just a couple of feet away.
This was several Tupelo Gum trees that had grown together. Mike referred to it as being similar to a large family tree which had broken or flipped over together at the same time.
I have never seen one this size from the bottom.
• Wayne Morgan is freelance wildlife photographer and author.
