Start of Cumberland Island National Seashore’s Duck House Trail
WARNING: Trails north of Stafford Beach are lightly traveled and are not maintained on a regular basis and therefore may be overgrown. Some can also be extremely muddy and even under water after heavy rains and high tides. Before hiking, ask a park Ranger about current conditions. Furthermore, do not hike these trails without wearing long pants and tick repellent. Ticks are prevalent on the trails, even the ones that are maintained.
The most accurate Cumberland Island National Seashore trail map is available through the Georgia Conservancy. You can download a free PDF version, or you can purchase a tear- and water-resistant printed map directly from the Conservancy or at the Cumberland Island National Seashore Visitor Center. The PDF is great for planning your hiking trips, but I highly recommend purchasing a map for use on the trails if you plan to do a lot of backcountry hiking. A free map is available at the Sea Camp Ranger Station, but it’s not that great, plus it tears up pretty easily. Regardless of your decision, be sure you have some sort of map before starting your backcountry hikes.
Length: 4 miles, round trip (7.5 miles from Sea Camp)
Time: 2 hours, plus time spent on the beach
Difficulty: Easy
The Duck House Trail at Cumberland Island National Seashore runs approximately 2.5 miles from Plum Orchard Mansion on the western side of the island to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side. However, if you only want to get to the beach, you can begin the hike at the trailhead on Grand Avenue, the main road through the park. From the road to the beach is two miles (four miles round trip). The trailhead is located just north of the turn off for Plum Orchard Mansion; a sign marks the spot. This is 7.5 miles from Sea Camp, making it feasible only for day trippers with bikes or those spending multiple days camping on Cumberland Island. This is the farthest beach from Sea Camp that day trippers have a possibility to reach and still have some time to spend on it. The trip takes approximately one hour by bike if you don’t stop.
The hike along the Duck House Trail starts off through a pine forest. The path is a former road, so it is quite wide. Despite this, no bikes are allowed on the trail because this section of the park is a designated Wilderness Area, and no mechanized contraptions of any sort are permitted. If you have a bike, you must leave it at the trailhead. You can secure it to a tree, but I seriously doubt anyone will mess with it.
Pine forest at the start of the Duck House Trail on Cumberland Island
There are a number of intersections along the way. At .6 mile into the hike is the Yankee Paradise Trail. Just a couple minutes later is the Tar Kiln Trail, and one mile from the start is the intersection with the Lost Trail. I made a loop hike using the Tar Kiln and Lost trails, plus a short segment of the Duck House Trail, and you can read about it on the Lost – Tar Kiln – Duck House Loop Hike web page. You will also pass the Yankee Paradise Campsite, though it is hard to spot if there are no tents set up. It is on your left about a hundred yards before you get to the Yankee Paradise Trail.
Live oaks and saw palmettos begin to dominate the environment just past the intersection with the Lost Trail. At this point the ocean is just a mile away.
Live oaks and saw palmettos along the Duck House Trail near the Atlantic coast of Cumberland Island
About ten minutes past the Lost Trail is a swampy area, and there are a number of mud holes and submerged sections that you must cross. Previous hikers have placed small tree branches across some of the mud holes, while at others you can walk slightly off the trail to get around them. You have no choice but to walk through a few of them. The mud is deep enough to cover tennis shoes, but those in hiking boots should not have a problem.
Deep mud hole on the Duck House Trail on Cumberland Island
Swamp towards the middle of the Duck House Trail at Cumberland Island National Seashore
At 1.6 miles into the hike the trail emerges from the swamp and comes out at the base of a steep sand dune. The trail is easy to hike until this point, but walking up a sizable hill covered in deep beach sand it always tough.
Sand dune on the Duck House Trail, Cumberland Island National Seashore
A tenth of a mile later is a TO BEACH sign and a pile of bricks. The sign is self explanatory, but the bricks spark curiosity. This is all that is left of the Duck House, a small house used by duck hunters during the Carnegie era and later by the U. S. Coast Guard during World War II. The Duck House belonged to the Richards Estate and became part of Cumberland Island National Seashore in 1984. The building was burned down by an illegal camper, and all that remains today is a pile of bricks, an old bed frame, and a few rails.
Path to the beach at the end of the Duck House Trail on Cumberland Island
Remains of the Duck House at Cumberland Island National Seashore
From the moment you first hit the sand you will be walking up and over a large sand dune. Once you descend, you will come to a stretch of forest that stands between you and the beach. The trees are once again pines, and the bed of needles on the trail is so thick that you don’t even make a sound when walking. It is at this point that the trail narrows into a traditional hiking trail, a departure from the wide road that led up to the sand dunes.
Duck House Trail at Cumberland Island National Seashore is covered in a thick bed of pine needles
It only takes about five minutes to walk through the forest and return to the sandy terrain. Being on sand, the trail is slightly harder to follow than the worn path through the forest, so look for the wooden posts that mark the way.
Wooden posts mark the sandy sections of the Duck House Trail on Cumberland Island
If you want to spend the day on a secluded beach and don’t mind a 15-mile round-trip bike ride and a 4-mile round-trip hike, you can’t do much better than a trip to Duck House Beach. Without a bike there is no possible way for a day tripper to get here, as it would entail a nearly 20-mile hike. Even with a bike you wouldn’t get to spend much more than an hour on the beach before you need to start heading back to catch the last ferry to the mainland at 4:45 PM. In truth, with only around 300 people coming to Cumberland Island each day at most, no beach is going to be crowded, so unless you simply must be alone, I suggest sticking to the beaches near Sea Camp or Dungeness where you can spend more time having fun and less time traveling. The quality of the beach is the same no matter where you are on the island.
Duck House Beach at Cumberland Island National Seashore
Dunes at Duck House Beach on Cumberland Island
Sign that humans have been on Cumberland Island’s Duck House Beach
If you decide to hike farther north or south on the beach, when returning, be on the lookout for the dune crossing marker, a tall black-and-white striped pole. The dunes all look alike, and it would be tough to find where you came in if it weren’t for this marker.
Dune Crossing Marker on the beaches at Cumberland Island National Seashore
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Last updated on July 23, 2024
