The 4th of July at Cumberland Island

Ruins of Dungeness
Wild horses by the ruins
Horseshoe crab on the beach
In the maritime forest
Inhabitant of the maritime forest... These "little" guys were everywhere and ranged from about 3/4 in to 3 inches in length. This is one of our larger finds and it made its web about a foot above where we were hiking. YIKES! You would look up into the canopy and see dozens of these spiders at varying heights above you. I got into the habit of keeping my eyes straight ahead... Ignorance is bliss, right?
Another picture on the pathway.
The horses came right up to us! It was kind of disconcerting at first to hear them neigh and stomp their hooves so close to us but we got used to it. They leave the visitors alone as long as you don't try to pet them or anything.
Salt marsh near the beach. The Horses drink the brackish water. Our guide informed us that this has lead to poor health and the horses on the island only live about 10-12 years. That's not very long at all when you consider that most horses have a life expectancy of about 30 years.
Crossing the Dunes to the Beach.


This fourth of July Cliff and I decided to skip the fireworks and enjoy America's natural beauty by way of Cumberland Island National Seashore. I had been there when I was about ten and had always wanted to go back. There is just something incredibly mysterious and beautiful about maritime forests to me. I love the ways the spanish moss blankets the trees like lace and the forests just seem so untouched by man. Raw natural beauty. We got to see a lot of wildlife and because we chose to hike rather than chill at the beach the whole day, (like everyone else that came over with us,) we felt like we had to the forest to ourselves. Here's a list of some of the wildlife we were able to see:

-Wild horses
-Wild Turkeys - they were huge!
-Dolphins (on the boat ride over)
-Monarch butterflies
-Banana spiders (Nephila Clavipes)
-Tarantula hawk wasp (these strange creatures sting large spiders to paralyze them and then drag them into a burrow and attach their larvae to the spider. The young feed on the spider when they are born. We saw two of these wasps dragging away ginormous wolf spiders that appeared to be "stunned" while we were hiking. Totally fascinating and totally disgusting.
- Horseshoe crab
-fiddler crabs
-wood peckers
- deer
- Black turkey vultures
-peregrine falcon
- armadillo... being eaten by the vultures....

And there you have it! Nature; the good, the bad, and the GROSS!! ;) Hope everyone had a good 4th!