A Night Inside the Okefenokee Swamp
with the Full Moon
+
A Full Day on Cumberland Island
+
Sunrise at Crooked River State Park
followed by
Sunset at Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island
-and-
Historic St. Marys, Georgia
Peter Essick Instructing
October 19 – October 24, 2026
$2750 per person
Please e nancy@sxsemagazine.com for partner rates
Monday: October 19th:
Home Base, St. Marys, GA
Arrive on the Georgia Coast, settle in to your hotel or Airbnb, and join us for a slide presentation and welcome dinner with Peter Essick. Peter will tell us about his history as a wilderness photographer with National Geographic, as well as show us slides of his work during that time, and his more recent books and projects.
Note: In July, the Okefenokee Swamp became UNESCO’s latest World Heritage Site. SxSE has been taking photographers to the swamp since 2017 and we are so happy to see it receiving the recognition it so deserves. With every workshop we have clients who say, “I’ve always wanted to go to Cumberland” (easy to understand). And at the end of the workshop they say, “I can’t wait to get back to the swamp!”
Tuesday, October 20th:
Okefenokee Swamp
It’s an early morning start as we venture to the Stephen C. Foster State Park where we’ll spend the next 24 hours inside the magnificent Okefenokee Swamp.
Stephen C. Foster State Park is a gold-tiered certified Dark Sky Park by DarkSky International. Designated in November 2016, it was the first dark sky location in Georgia and remains a premier gold-tier spot in the Southeast due to its remote swamp setting and minimal light pollution.
After setting up camp and a picnic lunch on Tuesday, our guide – a master naturalist who knows the swamp like the back of his hand – and Peter will lead us in exploring the canals of the swamp, and the open prairies where alligators glide through stands of cypress draped in Spanish moss. Great blue herons, Great Egrets, Anhingas, White Ibis, and Sand Hill cranes call the swamp home, along with Barred Owls and Bachman’s sparrows. Among the aquatic plants we’ll glide past are the Hooded Pitcher Plant, dainty yellow Bladderworts, and the low-growing Sundews with their carnivorous leaves! We’ll also visit Billy’s Island, a logging camp in the early 20th century for the workers who cut and hauled enormous trees out of the swamp. You’ll get to choose whether you’d like to make the trip in a canoe or a kayak, either will be available.
In the late afternoon we will return to camp and prepare for the evening. Dinner will be served while we set up for an all-night astrophotography experience. The waxing full moon will be in all her glory. And because she’ll be full a couple of days later, she will appear just after sunset in the eastern sky. The dark skies will set the backdrop, and the nighttime creatures will serenade us with their lullabies.
photo credit: Missus Owl, posing, Okefenokee 2026, © Nancy McCrary
Wednesday, October 21st:
Sunrise will greet us the next morning with an opportunity for stunning shots over the water. After breakfast, we’re back out in our boats to photograph the swamp awakening as the gators return home from their nighttime hunts, the lilies began to open, and the owls tuck in to roost for the day. We’ll return to camp for lunch, which will be served before an afternoon rendezvous in our boats for the shots we may have missed, or even newer ones.
We’ll return to our home-away-from-home on the coast late in the afternoon.
photo credit: Mr. Alligator, Okefenokee 2026 © Nancy McCrary
Thursday, October 22nd:
Cumberland Island, GA
October is the finest month to visit Cumberland Island. The temperatures have cooled down a bit, and the bug population is much more manageable!
Another early start as we board the ferry, Cumberland Queen, for a full day on the Island. A Brown Bag Breakfast will great you at the dock along with a cooler full of bottled water and assorted beverages for the day. Peter will lead the group on a scenic hike through the south end of the island past the Dungeness Ruins, (the Carnegie family’s 59-room Gilded Age mansion), and the Ice House Museum (detailing the indigenous and industrial history of the island). The Dungeness Loop Trail, 4.3 miles, is a leisurely hike through maritime oak forests out to the Atlantic beaches, with beautiful flora and fauna to photograph along the way. Also, the historic wild horses of Cumberland have a penchant for the south end of the island and are usually present on the beach – or along the trail itself!!
A Brown Bag Lunch, as well as healthy snacks, will provide the sustenance to keep you going.
We’ll return to the mainland at St. Marys on the Cumberland Queen in late afternoon. Traditionally, we walk across the street from the St. Marys dock for a beverage and a later afternoon nosh at the Riverview Hotel, an old historic hotel looking out over the water, with a view of rising moon.
Photo credit: Dungeness Ruins and wild horses, Cumberland Island, 2026, © Peter Essick
Friday, October 23rd:
Crooked River State Park
Up and at’em. Sunrise (at @7:30am) on the intracoastal waterway at Crooked River State Park, just outside of St. Marys (in fact, if you’re staying in St. Marys it’s walking distance). Crooked River is a 500-acre hidden gem on the tidal marshland. It offers a quiet, slow-paced coastal wetland setting with full views of the eastern sky where the sun will rise over the water. Fiddler crabs, gopher tortoises and lots of birds can easily be found on short paths winding through maritime forests and salt marshes.
Once everyone’s had the time they would like at Crooked River, we’ll meet for a Brunch.
Photo credit: Sunrise at Crooked River, 2026 ©Peter Essick
Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island
After brunch, we’ll have time to explore St. Marys, or take a nap (!), or edit our work – before we leave for Jekyll Island @2pm.
An hour up the coast is the 5700-acre barrier island known as Jekyll. She now operates under a conservation mandate designed to protect her ecosystems.
During the Gilded Age Jekyll was home to many of the wealthiest Americans, and the Jekyll Island Historic District maintains the original winter mansions of those earlier visitors.
And, Jekyll’s Driftwood Beach, with its weathered pine and oak “sculptures” is a fine location for photography at low tide. We’ll land there @4pm, at the middle of low tide, for a perfect combination of low sunlight and dry beach. We’ll stay for the moonrise just after sunset at 7:30 before finding a place for dinner and the ride back down the coast to St. Marys.
Photo Credit: Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, 2026 ©Peter Essick
Saturday, October 24th:
Home Again, Home Again
And we hope you’ll be taking home wonderful memories, maybe a few new friendships, a bit more knowledge, and some fine images.
A ZOOM review with Peter and Nancy will be scheduled once everyone has had time to edit their work and choose images they would like to show.
PETER ESSICK:
Named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine, Essick has traveled extensively over the last two decades photographing spectacular natural areas from around the world. He is a working photojournalist, but his photographs move beyond mere documentation revealing in careful compositions the spiritual and emotional aspects of nature. The unique and sometimes surprisingly similar forms and color of divergent pristine lands provide the raw material for Essick’s art. As a counter point, Essick has also done photographs to illustrate many environmental issues, portraying both the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land.
Essick has been a frequent contributor to National Geographic Magazine for 30 years. At the Geographic he has produced over 40 feature articles on many different topics. Some of his favorite and most rewarding stories have been on the American wilderness, the carbon cycle, global warming, and global freshwater. Recent stories include a June 2010 cover story on Greenland, a story on the Ansel Adams Wilderness in October 2011,and a story titled “When The Snows Fail” in October 2014. He is the author of two books, “Our Beautiful, Fragile World” and “The Ansel Adams Wilderness.”
He has a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri. He lives in Stone Mountain, GA with his wife, Jackie and son, Jalen.
What’s Included in the Fee:
Basics:
- Peter’s advice and instruction all along the way.
- Nancy’s logistics and planning, and any needed advice along the way
- All fees for the Okefenokee Swamp Park, Crooked River State Park, and the Stephen C. Foster Park
10/19: Welcome to the coast
- Welcome Dinner Monday night on the Georgia coast. Time and location t.b.d.
10/20: Okefenokee
- canoes and kayaks for boating in the afternoon + life jackets, paddles, etc.
- Overnight camping inside the Okefenokee Swamp with tents, sleeping bags, all the accoutrements
- a master naturalist guide for the trip and camping (he’s worked with SxSE on previous workshops and we know you’ll enjoy him as much as we do)
- lunch
- dinner
- snacks and beverages
10/21: Okefenokee
- Sunrise coffee and tea
- Breakfast and boating in the AM
- Lunch
- Boating in the afternoon.
10/22: Cumberland Island
- Round-trip Ferry tickets for the Cumberland Queen 8:30am – 5:00pm
- Cumberland Admission Fees
- Brown Bag Breakfast for the ferry
- Water, other beverages, and snacks for the day
- Brown Bag Lunch for picnic on the island
10/23 and at a later date:
- Brunch between sunrise at Crooked River and Sunset trip to Jekyll Island. Time and location t.b.d
- A Zoom Group Review will be held once everyone has had time to edit their images. More info at a later date.
What’s not Included:
- Your transportation to the Georgia coast and back home
- Overnight accommodations on the Georgia coast Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights. (If you’d like to share an accommodation, please let Nancy know and she’ll try to help)
- Dinner on Wednesday evening
- Dinner on Thursday evening
- Dinner on Friday evening
Fee: $2750
Partner Fee: e nancy@sxsemagazine.com
TO REGISTER:
e nancy@sxsemagazine.com – Subject Line: Overnight in the Swamp
NOTE: We prefer you pay via personal check or money order. We’re tired of paying credit card fees that just keep on rising. And we don’t enjoy passing that along to you, our clients. Nancy will send you mailing instructions upon registration. And, if you do prefer to use a card, we can certainly do that, also.
Look forward to seeing you on the coast this Fall!
