Jess' Journeys // Escape to Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island is perhaps one of the most naturally beautiful places that I've ever been. I can't wait to go back.


Let's get some basic info. out of the way before I tell you why this place is so special.

Spanish moss: Every tour you'll take of southeast Georgia will tell you this. Spanish moss is neither Spanish nor moss. It's an epiphyte (air plant) that just sort of hangs out on all of the live oak trees. Do NOT take it home with you. It's apparently a favorite hiding spot for chiggers.

Live oaks: These are the state trees of Georgia, and they're absolutely stunning. The saying is that they live for 300 years: 100 years of growing, 100 years of living, 100 years of dying. There are lots of live oak trees that are well over 300 years old though.




Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the good stuff.

If you choose to go there (which you should), be sure to plan & book your vacation in advance. The National Park Service (NPS) only allows 300 people on the island each day, so if you just show up you may be out of luck.

I booked the Lands & Legacies Tour, which is a guided tour of the island in an air-conditioned van. Trust me, in the summer, you'll be thankful for the a/c. My tour guide, Bob, was incredibly knowledgeable about the island and its history, which was all really interesting.

Here's how the day broke down:

8am - Leave my hotel in town and head toward the ferry dock.
When you get to the ferry dock, there's a shaded parking lot across the street that is specifically for people boarding the ferry to park in. All of the parking directly in front of the dock is short-term parking, so be aware. You don't want to come back from the island to find that your car got towed. After I parked, I grabbed my sandwich and water out of the back of the car and walked to the visitor center to check in.

9am - Ferry ride to the island
This 45 minute ferry ride was so relaxing. You can choose to sit inside with the air conditioning, outside on the lower level, or outside on the upper deck. All of the options are good, and no matter which you choose you'll have a great view. I chose to sit inside and watch the marshlands through the big windows. Sitting inside was great for people watching & meeting other passengers from all over the place.



9:45am - Leave the ferry & start my tour
The tour guides were so easy to find. It may have helped that they were the only people wearing khakis & white shirts, but they were also actively seeking out the tour participants. After they gathered everyone up, they split us into two groups of 9/10, and we boarded our vans. Since I was traveling alone, I got to have the front seat, right next to the tour guide, Bob. This meant I got to ask all sorts of questions & get a perfect view of everything.
I wish that I could tell you everything that I saw & learned on my 5+ hour tour of the island, but there's just no way. We did get to see the church where JFK Jr. got married, Plum Orchard, the Dungeoness Ruins, and all sorts of wildlife.

The entire island was like being in a fairytale world. Because the NPS keeps the number of visitors low, it's not crowded. All of the live oak trees and thick under-layer of vegetation added to this fairytale feeling. It always felt like I was on some sort of safari and that rhinos or something could run in front of the van at any time.

The most famous thing about Cumberland Island is, of course, the horses. They're everywhere, and it's amazing. The legend is that the Spanish explorers who first came to the island left them behind. Other people believe it was the English explorers. Either way, these horses have called Cumberland Island home for over 500 years. The NPS leaves them alone, and the horses seem to like that. They couldn't care less about people visiting the island, but just remember that they're wild and want nothing to do with you. They will kick and bite, just like any other wild animal.

We watched a plane land in a grass field landing strip. The people who call that part of the island are the descendants of the Carnegie family, which of course means that the people in the plan were Carnegie descendants coming to visit their vacation home on the island.

About halfway through the tour we visited Plum Orchard, which is one of the winter cottages that was owned by the Carnegie family.  The family matriarch offered each of her 9 kids $10,000 to help build their own cottage on Cumberland Island when they got married. One of the sons & his new wife took her up on this offer, and they built this newlywed home. While we were waiting for our tour to start, I ate lunch in a swing on the side porch, just watching the live oaks and enjoying the scenery. The NPS gives multiple tours of the cottage each day. It's pretty cool to see how people would have lived on the island and what steps have been taken to preserve the cottage.

After the Plum Orchard tour, Park Ranger Nick came to talk to me while I sat on the porch steps waiting on everyone else to finish lunch. He talked about how people underestimate how much the island affects them when they visit and how much he loved it. I'm not going to lie, I didn't think that would happen to me. The island was pretty, but it was just something to check off of my bucket list (or so I thought).

We continued our tour and visited the Dungeoness Ruins, the ruins of the largest, original Carnegie family cottage on the island. This is what you usually see in pictures of the island. The cottage burned down in 1959, but that hasn't stopped it from being a fascinating sight.

The list of animals we saw: horses (so many horses), armadillo, alligator, crabs, lots of different types of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, and turkeys complete with little baby turkeys.


4:45pm - The ferry back to the mainland departs
It was time to go back to the real world. As soon as I was off the island I missed it. Ranger Nick was right. Cumberland Island got into my head, and I haven't let it go. As soon as I boarded the ferry and turned my phone back off of airplane mode, I started trying to figure out a time that I could come back to visit. I slept through most of the ferry ride back because I was completely relaxed for the first time in months.

      
  


Want more info. about Cumberland Island? Check out these links:
https://www.nps.gov/cuis/index.htm
http://cumberlandisland.com
http://www.cumberlandislandferry.com