The name alone says it all about one of the most scenic and captivating green places in South Carolina - Sparkleberry Swamp, part of the Upper Santee Swamp and located at the bottom of the COWASEE Basin.

For those of you who are botantically- challenged, sparkleberry is a bush or tree sized member of the blueberry family that grows in sandy soils. The name probably comes from its abundant blooms of small, white urn- shaped flowers that cover the plant each spring. Sparkleberry doesn't tolerate wet feet so I assume the swamp must have gotten its name from the plants that grew up on the high ground near the boat landing.

I first became acquainted with Sparkleberry the swamp way back in 1965 when Brother Merritt and his hunting buddy, Adrian "Bubba" Farmer, took me there over the Thanksgiving holidays on my first duck hunting trip. I was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of such a beautiful and mysterious place. We stayed out until dark - long enough to see big flights of mallards silhouetted against a sunset sky and flashes of teal and summer ducks hurling by as they pitched into their nighttime roosts. The cypress trees, draped with Spanish moss, looked eerie against the darkening sky. Barred owls started hooting at us and overhead the winter sky was sparkling with stars. It was a place of incredible beauty, made all the more fascinating by a sense of mystery and remoteness.

Sparkleberry Swamp is one of South Carolina's most beautiful and mysterious green places. My duck hunting days are behind me but Sparkleberry is still one of my favorite places and has never lost that feel of mystery and beauty I first experienced as an 18 - year- old.

I traded in my duck boat and canoe for a nine- - foot kayak some time ago. Kayaks are a great way to see Sparkleberry. They are much easier to paddle than a canoe, especially if you're solo, and can get you to places not accessible to motor boats and even canoes.

A kayak is also very quiet. It makes you feel a part of the environment and you can approach wildlife much closer than in a motor boat. I once got so close to a buck eating acorns on an oak ridge in Sparkleberry that I could hear him crunching them like peanuts.

A kayak is an ideal way for an up close and personal look at Sparkleberry Sparkleberry is full of wildlife, and you never know what may lie just beyond the next bend as you paddle through a flooded forest of cypress and tupelo trees. Hunters and fishermen have known this for years, but photographers, nature enthusiasts, and paddlers have also discovered the beauty of the place.

Depending on the time of year a paddler or boater may encounter flocks of white ibis, great egrets, yellow crowned night herons, cormorants, water turkeys, osprey, eagles, wood storks, deer, turkey, alligators, and otters. My friend Jerry Bright once saw and photographed a rare water bird that flew up from Florida, a limpkin.

The river otter is my favorite Sparkleberry critter. Sometimes when you spot them ahead of your boat, one or two will hang back from curiosity and come check you out, all the while giving off their strange hissing noises.

Sparkleberry changes dramatically by the season. One of my favorite times to be there is in the fall when the cypress foliage has turned bronze, the yellow bur marigold is blooming and the reflections from the still, black waters are stunning.

Sparkleberry is owned and managed as a natural area by Santee- Cooper. It can be a little intimidating for first- time visitors since it is easy to get turned around in the maze of channels and creeks. But those proficient with a GPS (and a spare set of batteries) can paddle the place with confidence. Some of the paddling groups periodically offer guided trips there as does The High Hills Outdoor Center in Wedgefield run by the Palmetto Conservation Foundation. A nice hand drawn map of Sparkleberry is available for on line purchase at sparkleberry.com

(Next week: Congaree Crown Jewel)