To learn what the first explorers saw when they walked the beach on Hilton Head and other Lowcountry islands, visit Sapelo.

No development mars the gorgeous shoreline on this barrier island, which is part of the Georgia state parks system and reachable only by ferry. Visitors can explore the forested uplands, vast salt marsh, and solitary beach and dunes. Peace, uninterrupted by traffic, ringing cell phones and the other sounds of modern life, is a given here.

But modern life