As a National Seashore, access to Cumberland Island is managed by the National Park Service. There is a ferry boat which takes visitors back and forth. There are day trippers and overnight guests. The day trippers only have a few hours to experience all that Cumberland Island has to offer. The overnighters can stay at a private B&B or camp out. There is one primitive campground (treated water, bathrooms, cold showers, fire rings and picnic tables), as well as three different backcountry sites for the backpackers (no amenities). While, we like to backpack and get out into the wilderness, we opted to stay in the campground, so we could enjoy the park ranger tours and programs. However, we packed as if we were backpacking, which made setting up camp a breeze.
It gave us plenty of time to explore. Here is Dave "walking the plank" over one of the many live oaks that fell off the bluff and onto the beach of the Cumberland Sound.
Even though we were camping in a campground, we still managed to see lots of wild visitors. One night, just after sunset, we followed a pair of wild horses down the camp road as they headed out to the dunes for a little early evening snack. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take a photo.
The next day, we found Mrs. Arma Dillow rummaging around the side of the road just across from the bath house.
Camped next to us was a group of six 20-somethings (and we know how wild they are). Last night, one of the girls yelled to her boyfriend to "leave the kitty alone." (We knew she didn't mean house cat.) Her boyfriend shined a bright spot light up a tree and there was the biggest opossum we had ever seen. A few minutes later, while sitting next to our camp fire, Mr. O. Possum came waddling by. This "little kitty" must have been between 20 to 30 pounds. He just wandered right next to the camp fire, through our site and into the woods beyond our tent. And us without our camera again! You just never know who's going to stop by for a visit.
The big pastime on Cumberland Island is shell collecting. In fact, the Park Service encourages it. We couldn't resist. There are so many cool seashells just laying there waiting to be picked up. However, we knew we couldn't take them home, so we used them to decorate our camp site.
We broke camp on Sunday morning. As we passed all the other campers dragging two wheeled carts filled with surf boards, fishing rods, camp chairs, stoves, etc., we were glad we only had our backpacks. Backpacking in a campground has its advantages.
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