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Rumor has it, if you want to see an albino deer, you can maybe catch a glimpse of one here, at Ochlockonee River State Park. That’s not the only reason to come here, of course, but it’s a nice sighting to cross off your Florida bucket list.

I’ve yet to see one, but the first time we camped here, Banyan the Wonderhound (part goofy coonhound, part cowardly lion) went ballistic when a white-tailed deer — that was the only part of it that was white — strolled by our campsite. Banyan gave chase and for one panicked moment I thought we’d have to find a veterinarian because Banyan runs fast, but that deer was big.

Fortunately for all involved, Banyan did not catch the deer. Unfortunately for my Florida bucket list, the deer was not albino; it was a beautifully plain white-tailed deer, common in so many parts of Florida.

Piebald Deer and Squirrel in Florida

While I’ve seen white squirrels a handful of times in Florida — once while paddling Shingle Creek and once, of all places, scavenging for crumbs at a Starbucks at Disney’s Animal Kingdom — I’ve never seen an albino deer.

And they aren’t technically albino deer. Creatures with albinism have no pigment whatsoever, and they have pink eyes. The so-called “albino deer” in Florida don’t have that. These deer are piebald, which means they may be all white, mostly white, or partly white. And the herd of deer that wander through Ochlockonee River State Park include these piebald deer.

Woodpeckers

If you’re a birder with a certain endangered woodpecker on your life list, there’s another reason to head to Ochlockonee River State Park: The red-cockaded woodpecker lives here.

This bird is the only woodpecker in Florida who makes its home in living pine trees, but the pine tree it prefers — the longleaf pine — hasn’t fared too well with developers.

In the last century, St. Joe Paper Company, a DuPont company, clear cut most of the longleaf pine in the panhandle, replanting other pine trees that grow faster but don’t offer shelter to the same animals as the longleaf. (Today, St. Joe Company is a real estate developer in the panhandle. Check out Green Empire if you want to read more about the environmental horrors it inflicted there.)

Today, this woodpecker has a safe home at the park, with Florida State Park rangers going so far as to help them by hollowing out parts of trees so the birds can nest. The birds cannot do this here because the trees are younger and their trunks are still too hard; had St. Joe’s not clear-cut the old-growth longleafs, the birds would have no problems hollowing out trees.

Ochlockonee and Sopchoppy

For travelers used to peninsular Florida, this part of the state hits different. It’s part of the Deep South, whereas most of the Florida peninsula is the New South. Until the middle of the last century, more people lived in the panhandle than the peninsula. Road names here often bear the names of white landowners who had enslaved people working the land. Nearby, the Wacissa Slave Canal bears witness to the atrocities inflicted on those enslaved people. People may evolve, but the land still bears the scars.

The topography changes here, transitioning from beaches to forest. South of Tallahassee, west of Apalachicola National Forest, it’s minutes from the saltwater. At least, as the crow (or red-cockaded woodpecker) flies. Driving to the saltwater takes more time. That’s not why people come to this part of Florida.

People visit Ochlockonee and Sopchoppy for the wild spaces, the forests, and the rivers. A paddle on any of the blackwater rivers here evokes images of something primeval; the springs, so many here they often don’t have names, make the land feel dotted with magic, too.

It’s an otherworldly feeling to trade the beaches for this wooded abundance of paradise, but it’s so worth it.

I haven’t seen a piebald deer yet, but hope springs eternal. Especially up here.

Visit Ochlockonee River State Park

Ochlockonee River State Park, 429 State Park Road, Sopchoppy. $4/vehicle; $18, campsites. floridastateparks.org; 850-962-2771.

This article originally appeared in The Gabber Newspaper on July 15, 2025.