Clark Creek Natural Area is a publicly owned, natural preservation area encompassing off

Mississippi Highway 24 Mississippi Highway 24 (MS 24) is a state highway in Mississippi, United States. The highway runs from Fort Adams east to an interchange with Interstate 55 (I-55) and U.S. Highway 98 (US 98) in McComb. The roadway passes through Wilkinson, ...

approximately west of Woodville,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

features approximately 50

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

s, some with up to drops. The park is used for hiking, bird watching, and geocaching.

History

The park was established in 1978 through the efforts of the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Committee, the Nature Conservancy, Wilkinson County, David Bramlette, International Paper Company and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

Flora and fauna

The nature area has a mix of hardwood and pine forest with large beech and magnolia trees. The park includes the world record Mexican plum and bigleaf snowbell and the state of Mississippi record

hophornbeam ''Ostrya'' is a genus of eight to 10 small deciduous trees belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. Common names include hop-hornbeam and hophornbeam. It may also be called ironwood, a name shared with a number of other plants. The genus is nat ...

. Several uncommon trees that can be seen are Southern sugar maple,

serviceberry ''Amelanchier'' ( ), also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry (or just sarvis), juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear,A Digital Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador Vascular Plants/ref> is a g ...

, umbrella tree, pyramid magnolia,

chinquapin oak ''Quercus muehlenbergii'', the chinquapin (or chinkapin) oak, is a deciduous species of tree in the white oak group (''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus''). The species was often called ''Quercus acuminata'' in older literature. ''Quercus muehlenbergii ...

and

witch-hazel Witch-hazels or witch hazels (''Hamamelis'') are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with three species in North America ('' H. ovalis'', '' H. virginiana'', and '' H. vernalis''), and one each in Japan ('' H.&nb ...

. The globally rare Carolina magnolia vine and many others are well marked. A checklist of the vascular plants was recorded in 1982, and it was one of the first surveys of plants in southwestern Mississippi. The park includes migratory birds, various snake varieties (both venomous and non-venomous), a rare land snail, white-tail deer, chipmunks, the Southern red belly dace (a state endangered fish), foxes, coyotes, squirrels, armadillos, feral pigs, bobcats, cottontail rabbits and black bear as well as many other species.

Activities and amenities

The park has both primitive and improved trails. The improved trails have been paved with pea gravel and include steep wooden stairs. Clark Creek's steeply sloping bluffs increase the difficulty of hiking. The length of the primitive trail is approximately and usually takes 3–5 hours to complete. The improved trails are approximately long and usually take around 2 hours to complete. Eight

geocaches Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) GPS navigation device, receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or " ...

are located in the park.

Restrictions

The state has imposed various restrictions on visitors: park use is limited to pedestrian traffic year round; motorized vehicles are not allowed; hunting is prohibited; potable water is not available on the trails; camping is not permitted; ropes may not be used for climbing; hikers are required to stay on paths or in creeks. Dogs must be leashed at all times.

References

External links

Clark Creek Natural Area
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks
Clark Creek Natural Area Map
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks {{authority control State parks of Mississippi Protected areas of Wilkinson County, Mississippi Protected areas established in 1978