Day Trip to Little St. Simons Island

by Guerry Norwood

Nancy and I recently made a day trip to Little St. Simons Island with a small group of Sandpipers, which we recently joined. Sandpipers is a social club designed to offer as little or as much activity as a member chooses, from Dining In and Dining Out to several group meetings throughout the year. There are Sandpiper excursions both locally and farther afield and special interests such as book club, bridge, and kayaking.

Little St Simons Island is a private barrier island just off the Georgia coast which is prized for its unbothered natural beauty, gracious hospitality and secluded worlds-away appeal. Our Little St Simons day trip started at the Hampton Marina at 10:30 where we took at 15 to 20 minute boat ride down the Hampton River to Mosquito Creek. When we arrived at Little St Simons we met our naturalist tour guide Ben Morrison. Ben has been working on the Island for the past four years and is very knowledgeable.  We got on an open-air flatbed truck with bench seats across the back. With binoculars in hand, we headed out with Ben for a very informative tour of the undisturbed Maritime Forrest. Ben made frequent stops for us to view different aspects of the Maritime Forrest, while he explained the natural essence of Little St. Simons Island. Along the way we were able to spot a bald eagle nesting.

We returned to The Lodge at 1:00 for a hearty lunch of low country southern specialties. After lunch we took off for the beach for an afternoon of shell hunting on seven miles of private beach. We then returned to the Hampton Marina around 4:00 that afternoon. We all experienced what Southern Magazine described, “There are few places on the planet where beaches are without condos, and roads are without cars and night sky are only lit up by the shine of a billion far away stars. If you like that sort of thing, Little St Simons is as close to perfect as any place can get.”