Fernandina Beach/ Fort Clinch State Park

  Fernandina Beach, Florida, United States
Friday, December 28, 2007

December 27, 2007.  About to leave for Fort Clinch State Park and decided to call Red Otter Outfitters to have them reserve a kayak pump for us (just in case).  What a surprise....they not only don't have one, but they only carry women's sportsware now.  I guess we are supposed to wait a while longer.  Oh well, we already have a reservation so off we go.

On our way we stopped at a health food store to pick up some supplies.  We started to talk to the owner and he was giving us samples of his prepared "raw foods".  The food was all delicious and once again we discovered that we were meeting a graduate of the Culinary Institute.  Just as with the Lone Star in Santee, SC, the former student knew Ferdinand Metz and again, we are thankful to run into such a well taught chef. 

When we pulled up to the ranger's station, one of the rangers asked me to "come on in" to register.  What friendly people.  Even though they were full up with campers and they had been dealing with turning people away, the 3 rangers inside were friendly and generous with their time and information about the park.  One of them told me that this was the "best park in Florida" because it didn't get as hot as the others and that it had one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  Wow, what a claim.  I hope he's right and that we stumbled upon a sweet place to stay for a while.

Fort Clinch State Park Entrance

As I left the building, I looked over at the RV and there was a group of kids and parents standing directly at our bumper looking into the woods.  When I got over there I realized that Jodie was in the shade of the RV looking on as well.  I got closer and saw what all the excitement was about...an armadillo was a couple of feet away pushing his/her nose around in the leaves looking for something to eat.  It just kept on foraging as we all watched with big smiles on our faces.  What a cutie.  Jodie got a couple of pictures and then one of the kids spooked it a little and it took off.

Armadillo at entrance

a greeter from nature

The drive to our site meandered through a few miles of live oaks and Spanish moss.

Park road

park road

Our site is on the river and considering that this was the only site available till into January, we both feel fortunate.  What a totally cool campground and man, are we feeling lucky to be here.  This place is by far set up better than anywhere else that we've been so far.  We have a canopy of live oaks above us, the river is in front of us, deep woods behind us and miles and miles of roads and trails to bike on. Each site is set up as if privacy was a major concern.  Some campgrounds line campers up along side each other, but this place is far from that.  The only bummer is that we have to leave tomorrow because there are no available sites left.

great site 41

beautiful site 41 at Amelia River

view from 41 to Amelia River

After setting up we went on down to the Amelia River and walked on the sandy shore.

River beach

Spanish moss up close

Andy walking on Amelia River shore

Walking along the shore as it turns marshy and yet remains a large river that is tidal and runs into the Atlantic Ocean.  We are quietly enjoying the natural beauty when around the next bend.....

around the bend

a paper factory! Good grief. This is one of the down sides of flat land. No where to hide the industry!!

We then walked the other way with the river to our left as we followed the River to the Ocean about a mile away we came across Fort Clinch.

Fort Clinch on Amelia River & Atlantic Ocean

Wall of Fort Clinch

window with built in protection

Fort Clinch doors

The brick and design of the windows and doors was somehow beautiful even in its nasty reason for being built...protection in war!

great brick

We cruised over to the ocean (about a 3 mile ride) and took a walk on the beach.  What a beautiful beach for walking or riding.  We walked until it got close to dark and headed back to try to avoid biking on the road without any lights.  On the way to the bikes Jodie found a perfect sand dollar and I found what looks like a piece of colorful abalone (sp?).  This place is sweet and we don't want to leave, but we'll come back later.

Got on the phone and lucked into a cancellation for an ocean site for Jan. 1st through the 6th.  So we'll hit a Walmart parking lot tomorrow night, go over to Little Talbot Island State Park on Saturday (they only have one free night) and figure it out from there. What we seem to be running into is the school x-mas holiday that has all of the families out camping now. We had no idea how popular camping has become (or has always been) for families during the holidays.   We are delighted to be able to get back here next Tues. to Sunday and we'll keep trying to luck into a cancellation for Sunday and Monday.