Top Picks Sea Kayak to Cumberland Island Sea kayakers craving adventurous paddling should launch their kayaks at St. Mary's, Georgia and paddle down the tidal waters of the St. Mary's River. As you kayak up the waterway and across the sound, you will likely encounter curious botttlenose dolphins and great blue herons.
Strong paddlers can reach the mud lips of the island in four hours.
Explore Live Oak Forests Spanish moss drips from the sinewy limbs of live oak, creating an eerie overhanging canopy that shelter the lush emerald fronds of saw palmetto and Resurrection fern below. Check fern leaves for tiny green tree frogs. The frogs are less than an inch long and are particularly noisy after rain sprays the forest. Keep an eye out for the creepy, but harmless, giant banana spider. The Nightingale Trail maritime forest walk penetrates deep into a labyrinth of overhanging vines, magnolia, and cedar as the bellows of courting alligators echo throughout the forest.