Cumberland Island

The reason we were visiting St. Marys was so we could visit Cumberland Island. It takes some planning. We reserved ferry tickets online which were close to being sold out a week before our visit. Our hotel was across the street from the ferry which made things very convenient. This is a picture of the ferry coming in the day before our trip.

And here's our view during our trip. The river starts in Okefenokee Swamp and travels 126 miles to reach the area. St. Marys River is considered a blackwater river since tannins from plants make the water dark. You can see the color in the wake of the boat. We also saw a dolphin on our trip but didn’t get a picture.

As soon as we got off the ferry, we saw the wild horses that populate the island. There were many more horses than we expected. We sat and watched them chase each other across the fields. They wandered wherever they wanted.

The majority of the horses were in the large grassy areas but they visit the beach area and we even found evidence of their travel on a boardwalk. Personally, I was OK with sidestepping the piles on the trails but it seems to me that boardwalk should be out-of-bounds for them. Apparently the horses don’t agree with me.

The wild animals on the island are used to being around people. We were warned not to approach any of them and we kept our distance. We heard or saw several armadillos in the brush that kept mostly hidden. However, one armadillo scared me as he approached me when I took this picture. Are there attack armadillos?

We hiked the 4 mile loop trail. The trail starts with a wide oak tree lined path.

The big draw is the Dungeness Ruins. The mansion was built by Thomas Carnegie back in the 1880’s and it burnt down in 1959.

A major part of the trail is walking on the beach. We picked up a few shells including a sand dollar, saw lots of horse crab shells which were too big to carry, and saw quite a few star fish.

Other sights on the trail were the gravesite of General (during the Revolutionary War) Henry Lee, father of General Robert E. Lee, an old wash house, and these absolutely gorgeous trees. A very nice day!