Cannon's Point Preserve does not have one schedule. It has three, and the version most people assume is permanent is actually the most generous one, available for only part of the year. Right now, in mid-September, the gate off Lawrence Road is locked and will stay that way until October. Locals who show up expecting the usual Saturday hike find a chain instead, and the sign that greets them says "maintenance projects," which undersells what is actually happening on the far side of that gate.
The preserve, owned and managed by the St. Simons Land Trust, sits on the north end of the island off Lawrence Road, past the fire station, at the end of a private road that leads to the old Taylor's Fish Camp on Lawrence Creek. It is one of the last places on the island where you can still walk under a maritime forest that hasn't been subdivided, and it is also, quietly, an active field research site that has been running the same experiment since 2015.
Three Versions of Open
Most of the year, the preserve runs on its standard schedule: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the non-motorized boat launch open a shorter window, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. That's the version that shows up on Google and AllTrails, and it's the one most visitors treat as the only version.
But the Land Trust posted a different set of rules for the early-summer stretch last year, running May 24 through July 28. During that window, Saturday and Sunday access was limited to the Southern Area only. Monday was the one day the entire preserve, north end included, was open. Then, come August, none of it is open at all.
| Window | What's actually open |
|---|---|
| Standard season (fall through spring) | Full preserve, Sat/Sun/Mon, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. |
| Early summer (last posted: May 24–Jul 28) | Southern Area only on Sat/Sun; full preserve on Mon |
| August–September | Closed entirely, reopening in October |
If you've only ever visited on a random Monday in March, you've experienced the most open version of a place that spends a third of the year restricting or closing entirely. That's not a criticism of the Land Trust. It's a reason to actually check the calendar before you drive out there, instead of assuming a nonprofit-run wilderness preserve behaves like a county park with fixed hours.
The North End Closes First
The split between the Southern Area and the rest of the preserve isn't arbitrary. The southern loop, near the parking lot at Taylor's Fish Camp, is the only wheelchair-accessible section, and it includes the bathrooms, the dock, and the Georgia-Pacific Education Pavilion. It's also the section closest to the road, easiest to monitor, and least dependent on staff being physically present.
The north end is where the John Couper plantation ruins sit, along with the remains of an overseer's house and the observation tower that gives you the best marsh view on the property. It's also farther from the parking area, reachable only on foot or by bike (e-bikes included), since vehicles are restricted to the southern lot except for pre-approved organized tours. When access gets restricted, it's the north end that goes first, and it's the north end that stays closed longest. That's the part of the property carrying both the historic ruins and, as it turns out, the ongoing science.
What "Maintenance" Is Actually Covering For
Here's the part that doesn't make it onto the trail signage. Since December 2015, Cannon's Point has been the site of a maritime forest restoration study run in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Purdue University, and New Mexico State University. It started after a southern pine beetle outbreak forced the Land Trust to log sections of the north end, leaving cleared ground that needed a plan.
The plan became five research phases spread across 31 plots, testing how live oak seedlings survive under different light, spacing, and vegetation conditions. Phase 5, established in March 2020 on the far north end, put more than 700 live oak saplings in the ground, grown at New Mexico State's forestry research center in Mora, New Mexico, from acorns collected on St. Simons itself, including acorns from 300-year-old oaks at Cannon's Point and Fort Frederica.
That research is still active. In mid-January 2026, a team from Purdue and New Mexico State, including researchers Dr. Owen Burney and Dr. Douglass Jacobs, came back to re-measure 720 five-year-old seedlings in the Phase 5 plot, pull old fencing and T-posts from the earliest research phases, and drop off nearly 100 live oak seedlings at the Land Trust's office on Frederica Road for anyone in the community to take home and plant. So when the preserve closes for two months every late summer, part of what's happening behind that gate is fieldwork on a decade-old study, not just trail grading.
A Nonprofit, Not a Park Department
It's worth understanding why Cannon's Point runs this differently than a public park would. The Land Trust bought the 608-acre peninsula from Wells Fargo in 2012 for $24 million, part of an 18-month, $25 million capital campaign that also funded the work needed to open it to visitors at all. Hank and Wendy Paulson, who own neighboring Little St. Simons Island, and Pete and Ada Lee Correll were the lead donors who got that campaign across the finish line.
In February 2021, the Land Trust added roughly 100 more acres in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Georgia DNR, land that had once been part of the old Oatland Plantation, bringing the preserve to more than 700 protected acres today. None of this land answers to a county parks budget or a fixed maintenance calendar. It answers to a conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy and a small nonprofit staff supported heavily by volunteers, which is exactly why the hours shift with the seasons and the research schedule instead of staying fixed year-round.
Before You Go Back in October
A few things worth knowing before the gate reopens:
- No pets are allowed anywhere on the preserve, service dogs excepted. This is in the conservation easement, not a preference.
- There's no potable water on site and no trash receptacles. Bring your own water and pack out everything you bring in.
- Drones need written approval from the Preserve Manager in advance. This isn't optional.
- Vehicles stay in the Taylor's Fish Camp lot. Everything past that point is on foot or bike.
- The non-motorized boat launch runs a shorter window than the trails, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., even on days the rest of the preserve is open longer.
None of this is complicated once you know it. Most of the frustration people post online about arriving to a locked gate comes down to checking a generic listing instead of the Land Trust's own site, which is the only place that reliably reflects which of the three versions of "open" is currently in effect.
For anyone who's spent a fall afternoon at the observation tower or biked the loop past the Couper ruins, Cannon's Point is one of the reasons the north end of St. Simons still feels the way it does. Knowing how the place actually runs, and what that August quiet is really doing, makes the October reopening worth planning around rather than stumbling into. For more on how the island's calendar shifts month to month, our seasonal guide to life on St. Simons covers the rest of the year's rhythms.
If you're already living the version of island life that includes knowing which trail closes when, and you're curious what your own corner of St. Simons is worth in today's market, Christal Clear Properties is always glad to talk it through. Reach out anytime to schedule a free consultation.
