The Sea Islands are a string of about 100 barrier islands that stretch for over 200 miles along the southeast coast of the United States, from approximately Charleston, South Carolina south to Jacksonville, Florida. These islands have a characteristic ecology of fine sandy beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, maritime forests with impressive live oaks, and large salt marshes along their western coasts facing inland.
Cumberland Island is one of the largest of the Sea Islands. 17 miles long, it’s located at the southernmost end of the Georgia coast, just north of the Amelia Island, Florida. In the early 1970s, after a long period when conservationists advocated for protection of the island’s natural ecology from development, most of the island was acquired by the federal government from its largest landowners for the creation of a National Seashore. Today Cumberland is accessible only by boat, and it remains almost completely undeveloped. A National Park Service ferry carries a limited number of visitors daily to the island from St. Marys, Georgia, and Greyfield Inn brings its guests on its boat from the marina in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island.
I’ve been visiting Cumberland for a long time. Its intimate natural beauty and peacefulness is always more than a bit wondrous to encounter. The photographs in this post were taken on my most recent visits. They show the beach stretching up along the Atlantic Ocean; the interdune meadows; the live oaks and saw palmettos; and the beautiful salt marshes on the side of the island facing the Georgia mainland.
There are no roads or highways to Cumberland. The National Park Service runs a ferry from St. Marys, and Greyfield Inn brings its guests to this dock, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
Cumberland’s 17-mile-long beach extends off into the distrance in this aerial photo. The interdune area in the center of the photo stretches between the beach and the maritime forest on the left.
The trees and shubs in the interdune areas are shaped by wind and create a fascinating layered landscape.
A few paths roll to the beach across the interdune areas, with their palmettos and low shrubs and wild horse trails.
The wide flat beach supports a multitude of shore birds. In this photo, looking south to Amelia Island, the outline of the pulp mill in Fernandina Beach is visible.
One windy morning I found the shells on the beach embellished with little white drifts of fine sand that had dropped behind the micro-shelters of the shells – in this case, of a horseshoe crab. I may do a post with just photos of interesting compositions like this that I photographed.
Light pinks and blues reflected in the ripplying water running down to the quiet ocean.
The island’s live oaks reach over the lone sand road that stretches up the length of the island. Saw palmettos edge the road with their bright green fronds.
Long puddles on the main road from heavy rains reflect the live oaks and saw palmettos, creating an immersive scene.
The unique beauty of the live oaks, stretching their limbs way out and decorated with Spanish moss.
The west side of the island is also lined with large salt marshes, rich and beautiful ecosystems.
This aerial image shows patterns of the salt marsh edge that are invisible from the ground level. Here, an interplay of marsh grasses, a tidal sandy area, and a fringe of trees creates an intricate composition.
Patterns of live and dead marsh grasses at the edge of a marsh.
Bright and muted greens of the marsh; live grasses, laying down, that look as though they’ve just been combed into this interesting pattern, with a border of matted dead grasses.
