One of my major goals for our trip was to return to a magical place called Cumberland Island. Ever since I heard about it from an acquaintance who was lucky enough to be descended from the original owners, I wanted to go. We took the kids about a dozen years ago, hiking and camping on its 20,000 acres - 9,000 are designated wilderness. It has 17 miles of undeveloped beach and a resident wild horse population. If you ever want to know what our southern coast was like before humans developed it, try to visit this National Seashore. Originally settled by the Timucuan tribe, the Spanish had a mission here until the English built defenses in the 1700's. Then, in 1803, the widow of a Revolutionary War hero, General Nathaniel Green built a house called Dungeness. In the early 1900's the industrialist, Thomas Carnegie, bought the land and built a huge mansion. His family built homes around the island. Eventually most of the land was given to the US government to form this park. There is a beautiful inn here called Greyfield and John F. Kennedy Jr. was married here in a church built many years ago by free African Americans.
The vegetation is mostly huge live oaks and palmetto. There are miles and miles of hiking trails like this.
All the roads are dirt. Many people travel by bike.
Not a house or condo in sight.
There were shore birds everywhere and, unlike most I've encountered, they had little fear of humans. They just kept probing for dinner as we walked up to them.
It is an amazing walking beach.
There are dunes...
..and miles and miles of marshes teeming with wildlife.
The ruins of Dungeness. In the evening Nico and I came ashore as the last ferry was leaving. It was like all the wildlife knew the day trippers were gone and they all came out. We saw armadillo, raccoon, many horses and tons of small deer.
It's hard to think they are wild. They look like they are part of the estate.
A mare feeding her youngster, who looked like a yearling.
They are the same size and shape as Mongolian or Newfoundland horses.
We even saw a piebald deer. It wasn't an albino since it had brown eyes and brown spots on its legs and one on top of its head.
