Grand Avenue trailhead for the Willow Pond Trail on Cumberland Island
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: 2.1 miles, one-way (5.8 miles from Sea Camp)
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Willow Pond Trail map (click to enlarge)
The Willow Pond Trail stretches from its trailhead at Grand Avenue to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The trail also intersects with the Parallel Trail, which you can take a short distance south to the Hickory Hill Campsite. The trail is within the Wilderness Area and no bikes are allowed even if pushed, so you must leave your bike at the trailhead.
Scenic beauty is lacking on the northern trails at Cumberland Island National Seashore, so unless you are out for exercise or have a goal to hike every trail in the park, I recommend hiking the trails only if you need to get somewhere. In that regard, when passable, the Willow Pond Trail is one of the more useful in the park.
If you have hiked any of the trails at the southern end of the island, you will notice a drastic difference in the vegetation along the Willow Pond Trail. The maritime forest in the south is comprised largely of live oaks and saw palmetto bushes. Along the Willow Pond Trail you will find more of a hodgepodge of vegetation—live oaks, pine trees, palmetto bushes and other brush, and even sable palms.
Terrain at the start of the Willow Pond Trail on Cumberland Island
About .4 mile into the hike is a swampy area, and there are a number of mud holes and submerged sections that you must cross. The deeper muddy sections have boardwalks across them, but upon occasion you must either walk through the mud or find a way around it. The fact that boardwalks exist suggests that the muddy sections are year-round fixtures on the trail and not something I happened upon by chance after a recent rain storm.
Muddy sections start .4 mile from the start of the Willow Pond Trail in Cumberland Island National Seashore
Swamp along Cumberland Island’s Willow Pond Trail
Unfortunately, I was not able to hike beyond the half mile point because the trail was not only extremely muddy, but it was also often underwater. I had been walking on a very long boardwalk for about a tenth of a mile, but the walkway abruptly came to an end with a 100-foot-long puddle in front of it. It seems strange to build a boardwalk that long only to come up a hundred feet short of bridging the mud—maybe the National Park Service ran out of money. I’ve slogged through mud before, but I didn’t have much interest in doing so now. I turned around and headed back to Grand Avenue.
Boardwalk through the swamp on Cumberland Island’s Willow Pond Trail
End of the boardwalk on the Willow Pond Trail on Cumberland Island
Mud along the Willow Pond Trail on Cumberland Island
Before heading out to hike the Willow Pond Trail, be sure to ask a park Ranger about the current condition. If you are trying to reach the Hickory Hill Campsite, use the Parallel Trail, which starts on Grand Avenue at the Sea Camp ferry dock. You cannot reach the campsite via the Willow Pond Trail without crossing the swamp area.
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Last updated on August 1, 2024
