St. Mary's Georgia

We visited the area, Stayed in Crooked River State Park And took a day cruse to Cumberland National Seashore.

We spent a few days at Crooked River State Park. It is just outside of St. Mary's, Georgia. For my two cents this is one of the best-kept secrets in Georgia. The park is huge. It has a swimming area, boat ramp, tent camping, hiking trails, RV camping, hiking trails, and cabins.

I can tell you the cabins look real nice. Unfortunately we got an up close look as we missed our turn for the RV campground and had to turn around in their parking area, not a fun thing.

The RV campground is made up of two loops. One loop is a little more wooded than the other. The sites are neat, clean, well maintained and are some of the most level sites we have seen in some time.

The town of St. Mary's is a pretty little town with a lot of old well maintained homes. We wandered up and down the town streets the beautiful old homes. The downtown area is right on the water and full of quaint little shops. There is abundant auto parking and an area meant for boat trailers that will nicely fit our rigs. Best part the parking is free and right on the main street easy to get to.

We took a day trip to Cumberland Island National Seashore. It is approximately 45 minutes by boat from the mainland. This is one of the oldest barrier islands on the Atlantic Coast with a landmass larger than Manhattan Island. Here you can walk 17+ miles of very clean beaches or there are primitive camping areas. One of the neatest things about the island is has something like 300 wild horses that live there.

In 1880 Thomas Carnegie bought most of the island and built a 59 room Scottish castle complete with turrets. It was used as a retreat until 1959 when it was burned to the ground. Well not exactly to the ground there is a lot left to see and is quite a vision of what kind of money these people must have had. Spend some time here and walk the grounds and visit the out buildings on the estate.

Oh one more thing there is no place to buy food or water on the island so take a backpack....one more thing there are no trash cans there so what you take in please take out with you....leave only your footprints.