Fort Clinch & Amelia Island Outdoor Day

Amelia Island is the southernmost of the Sea Islands — the chain of barrier islands running from South Carolina to Florida that sheltered Francis Drake, Jean Ribault, and successive waves of colonial ambition before becoming some of the most biodiverse coastal habitat on the Atlantic coast. Fort Clinch State Park occupies the northern tip of the island with a Civil War-era brick fort still in partial construction when the war ended, now accessible by a hiking trail system that winds along the Cumberland Sound shoreline through maritime hammock and salt marsh. The island's Atlantic beach is wide and uncrowded; kayaking the tidal creeks between the beach and the mainland marsh passes osprey nests, bottlenose dolphins, and the kind of undeveloped coastline that has mostly vanished from Florida.