One of the prettiest areas of the southeast Atlantic coast I saw in a 2014 road trip from Jacksonville, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia was the area around Brunswick, Georgia and St. Simon’s Island. I stopped by the roadside on Highway 17 and snapped a photo of a palm surrounded by marsh grass.
Last week I saw that lonely palm again as I drove along Highway 17 north, near the Jekyll Island causeway. All I knew about Jekyll Island before arriving was the island had recently seen the opening of a new Westin Hotel and there is a Holiday Inn Resort. A Georgia tourism representative I spoke with a few days before had mentioned some historic hotel to see on the island.
US Route 17 Georgia, Sidney Lanier Bridge over Brunswick River, north of Jekyll Island causeway.
Jekyll Island Causeway has an entrance road of a few miles in length before arrival at automated tollbooths.
The entrance fee is $6.00 daily and credit cards preferred. There is also a visitor center and police station.
Jekyll Island Causeway Terrapin Crossing
Diamondback terrapins live in the tidal salt marshes around the Jekyll Island Causeway. The cordgrass of the marsh provides habitat for fiddler crabs, blue crabs and periwinkle snails the diamondback terrapins eat. May to July is mating and nesting season.
I arrived at low tide around 7pm in the evening. And I wondered if it was worth $6.00 to go through the tollbooth and see the island in the couple hours left of evening before darkness?
After coming this far and the fact that there was still at least an hour of sunlight and a relatively clear sky for photography, I paid $6.00 and continued onto Jekyll Island. What I saw on Jekyll Island over the next few hours convinced me my money was well spent.
[Note: I accidentally hit the publish button as I was writing this. I’ll take that as a sign to continue the story of historic Jekyll Island Club in the next post.]
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