January 2025February 2025 Current Home Page

02/05 - Little St Simons - A Stop at Fort Frederica

En route to Little St. Simon's Island we stopped at Fort Frederica to eat our left overs and stretch our legs. There are ruins, historical gardens and the view of the coastal waterway the British fort once defended from the Spanish. It was February, but we did spot a violet in bloom and ripe oranges. Oranges are green until cold weather ripens them into the form that turns up in grocery stores.






Some oranges, too high up to reach, so probably sour

Keywords: georgia

02/04 - Little St Simons - Flatboat to the Island

We took a flatboat out to Little St Simons Island. It was a very pleasant ride on calm waters. On our previous visit, it had been wet and icy. All of us passengers huddled under blankets. This trip was quite different.









Keywords: georgia

02/03 - Little St Simons - Arrival, Needlerush Trail and Sunset

We took the flatboat from the Hampton River Marina to Little St Simon's Island. As soon as we were on land, we took a short walk north up and along the Needlerush Trail. We felt right at home. Then, we went and watched the sunset before dinner.





















Keywords: georgia

02/02 - Little St Simons - Sancho Panza, Controlled Burns and More

One of the guides at Little St Simons took us up north to an area of the island we had not explored. We visited the Twin Oaks, two old gnarly live oaks with long almost horizontal branches twisted and warped around each other. It's hard to capture this in pictures since the trees wrap around one. There were bones and feathers on the ground.

We passed through one of the controlled burn areas with charred vegetation and black ash on the ground. This is part of the island management plan. The burned area was a real contrast to the lush local vegetation.

We also stopped at Sancho Panza beach. It was once wild dunes, but now most of the dunes are covered with grasses. It's one of the many transformations. We didn't spend a lot of time exploring, so we're hoping to get back to the area on a future visit.


Welcome to the island





Welcome to the island


A burned area




The Twin Oaks








Sancho Panza Beach



Keywords: georgia

02/01 - Little St Simons - Atlantic Beach

In the afternoon, we headed out to the Atlantic Beach. The tide was going out, and it was going to be an extremely low low tide. This meant lots of beach and a GPS track that mainly had us walking on water.

We did some bird watching en route, and saw a friendly and photogenic armadillo. Then we crossed the dread Mosquito Causeway to the beach. It was too cold for our insect "friends", so there was not a mosquito to be found.

One of the nice things about having a guide was having someone to point out and explain things. We had seen and collected sand dollars before, but our guide showed us the distinctive pattern of holes that they leave when they bury themselves at low tide. He even dug one up for us so we could see the moving spikes on its underside. (Of course, he returned that one to its hole.)

We also saw some little sand worms and their trails of snot and sand along the beach and olive shells with their distinctive tracks. We walked far out on the sand into the sea. The sky was bright and the ocean endless.

En route





The Mosquito Causeway


Sand patterns






A living sand dollar

A sand dollar hideaway


A sand dollar in the sand


Olive shell with its distinctive track




Keywords: georgia

January 2025February 2025 Current Home Page