Cumberland Island National Seashore Guide

Cumberland Island National Seashore

Cumberland Island National Seashore Highlights

You can get to Cumberland Island only by boat. A ferry offers regular service from nearby St. Marys. Visitors can appreciate some of the best scenery in the Southeast from frontcountry and backcountry tent camps. Windswept beaches lead up to wooded dunes behind which massive live oaks shade palmetto thickets. Wild horses roam the woods and sands, and historic mansions add human history to the natural beauty.
Sea Camp, the frontcountry campground, lies within a live oak forest where campsites are cut out from the palmetto and wax myrtle bushes. Each campsite has elevated food storage boxes installed by the park service. Every camper must use these because the raccoons here are particularly adept at getting into human food.
Business at Sea Camp is steady year-round despite the heat and bugs of summer and sporadic cold snaps of winter. The campground is likely to fill almost every weekend of the year, but this is weather dependent. Reservations can be made six months in advance and are highly recommended. In summer, the stays are generally shorter than the seven-day limit; and in winter, the ferry doesn't run on Monday or Tuesday, altering the visitation patterns a bit.
The beach at Cumberland Island stacks up to any other on the East Coast. The interior of the island is beautiful as well. Wetlands and inland ponds divide the live oats and pine woods, and miles of trails traverse the island.
Cumberland Island also has a series of backcountry campsites accessible by foot. Stafford Beach is 3.5 miles from the trailhead and is the most popular. Brickhill Bluff overlooks the landward side of the island and can also be accessed by kayak. The other two sites, Yankee Paradise and Hickory Hill, are in the interior of the island.
I went to Cumberland Island this past June. It is an absolutely beautiful place to visit, and I'm sure I will go there again in the future. Just a couple things to let future travellers know about: you don't really have to have reservations six months in advance. I called a couple weeks beforehand and had no issues. Also, summer months there are beautiful; but keep in mind that there are a lot of mosquitoes around and humidity levels are high. I think if I were to go back it would be in October for those two reasons. Happy travelling.
Submitted by beth, Windham, CT

By Travel Expert: Johnny Molloy