Lowcountry Paddle & Shore: Okefenokee, Cumberland & Tybee

The Suwannee Canal penetrates 11.5 miles into the Okefenokee from the East Entrance, following the straight-cut channel of the failed 1890s drainage project through open blackwater prairie and into the cypress forest interior. Morning is the best time to paddle it: the alligators are active and visible at the canal margins, anhingas and great blue herons work the shallows, and the light on the black water and yellow-green cypress is extraordinary. Plan for 3-4 hours of paddling to reach Chase Prairie and return, covering the most wildlife-rich sections of the canal.

After returning from the canoe, the Chesser Prairie Boardwalk provides an elevated perspective over the open prairie landscape: the observation tower at the boardwalk's end looks out over hundreds of acres of lily pad prairie and blackwater channel, with sandhill cranes often visible in the middle distance and alligators in the channels below.

A full day on Cumberland Island begins at the Dungeness ruins and expands outward through the maritime forest. The Carnegie mansion ruins — roofless tabby walls draped in resurrection fern, wild horses sheltering in the shadow of what was once a 150-room winter palace — set the tone: wildness and history in equal measure, neither one quite eclipsing the other. From Dungeness, trails reach north toward First African Baptist Church (2.5 miles) and east to the beach (15 minutes).

Lunch on the Atlantic beach — 18 miles of undeveloped shoreline, no buildings, no vehicles. Walk as far as you like in either direction. The beach surface is firm at low tide for comfortable walking, and the ocean swimming is excellent except during strong onshore wind or storm surge conditions.

The afternoon walk to First African Baptist Church through the live oak tunnel is one of the most beautiful walks in Georgia — 2.5 miles of shaded trail under a canopy that makes the outside world seem very far away. The church and its cemetery in the late afternoon light, with the only sound being wind in the live oaks and the distant surf, are deeply affecting.

Fort Pulaski is one of the most important sites in American military history, though it sees a fraction of the visitors that battlefields like Gettysburg receive. The fort was built beginning in 1829 on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, using 25 million bricks and the engineering supervision of a young Army engineer named Robert E. Lee, who spent his first professional assignment here. The fort's 7-foot-thick brick walls were considered impenetrable by the military science of the day. On April 10-11, 1862, Union forces under General Quincy Gillmore deployed rifled artillery at a range of 1,650 yards — unprecedented at the time — and in just 30 hours of bombardment breached the 7-foot wall, exposing the fort's interior magazine and forcing Confederate surrender. The rifled cannon, which could be aimed with far greater accuracy and punch than the smoothbore guns that masonry fortifications had been designed to withstand, had made masonry fortifications obsolete in a single engagement. Military engineers worldwide drew the same conclusion: the age of brick and mortar defensive works was over. You can stand in the breach today and see the collapsed wall and the reconstructed casemates, and the interpretive exhibits are excellent.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse, at 154 steps and 145 feet, is the oldest and tallest lighthouse in Georgia. A lighthouse has stood near this site since 1736 — one of the first built in the American colonies — making this location one of the longest continuously operated light stations in the nation. The current structure, built in 1867 after the Civil War, uses a first-order Fresnel lens visible 18 miles at sea. The 154-step climb to the lantern gallery provides a panoramic view of the Savannah River entrance, the Georgia coastline, and on clear days the South Carolina coast.

Casual beachside spot at the north end of Tybee — fish tacos, shrimp baskets, cold drinks. Perfect refuel after the lighthouse climb and before the afternoon kayak.

Little Tybee Island, immediately south of Tybee across Tybee Creek, is an uninhabited barrier island accessible only by water — one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands on the Georgia coast, roughly twice the size of Tybee Island itself. The paddle across Tybee Creek takes about 20 minutes from Tybee's south end; guided tours depart from the Lazaretto Creek area. Once on Little Tybee, you can walk miles of wild beach, explore the tidal creek system by kayak, and observe one of the finest shorebird and wading bird assemblages on the Georgia coast: nesting oystercatchers on the inlet bars, brown pelicans roosting in the creek channels, bottlenose dolphins feeding in the tidal cut, and in spring and fall, extraordinary concentrations of migrant shorebirds using the island's wide tidal flats as a staging area.

A last afternoon on Tybee's south-end beach, where the pier extends into the Atlantic and the beach crowds thin out past the pier. The water here is warmer and calmer than the exposed north end in most conditions, with small breaking waves ideal for body surfing. The pier at the south end is one of the finest sunset viewing spots on the Georgia coast, with westward views back over the marshes toward Savannah.

Tybee's go-to for sunset seafood — grouper sandwiches, oysters on the half shell, and cold beer overlooking the marina. Earns a final Tybee meal before the short drive back to Savannah.