Big Lagoon State Park - Pensacola, Florida (November 2022)

Our last Rosie adventure camping in the Pensacola area was memorable. (Rosie is the name of our Airstream trailer.) Our trip was cut short when that campground closed because of a hurricane in the Gulf. As Yogi Berra said, “It seemed like deja vu all over again” as we packed to go to a different park along the Gulf and we saw news stories about a new hurricane coming up the coast. We could not help but wonder if this was going to be another abbreviated trip. 

Before we left home, we called the Ranger Station at Big Lagoon State Park to talk about the possibility of that park closing. Yes, the Ranger would close the park if a hurricane was approaching it, but his information suggested the storm was going to miss Pensacola.  That was good enough for us and we continued to load Rosie and headed to Big Lagoon. 

Sign at the entrance to the park

Check in at Big Lagoon State Park was a breeze. We gave our name and our site number to the ranger on duty at the entrance station and he gave us our registration papers and vehicle pass. Things quickly went downhill from there. 

Our site (55) was mostly loose sand. We could see the deep ruts made by the previous camper as we started to back in. We finally parked and the iPhone app we use to level Rosie said we had to raise the right side five inches to even approach level. That wasn’t going to happen because the tires on our truck spun in the soft sand as we backed in. We knew that going up on the leveler blocks would be impossible.

As we were about to accept the obvious fact that our reserved site was a sand pit and we would spend our time there with a pronounced side-to-side lean, a camp host came over to help us. He called in a Ranger and after a short conference, we were moved to an open campground volunteer’s site. Instead of parking in what could have been a golf course sand trap, our new site was paved with grass and a few sandy areas. Things were looking up!

Rosie in the Volunteers Loop

Speaking about looking up, we learned that the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels team was scheduled to perform their “Homecoming” show during our stay. The Pensacola newspaper predicted that 150,000 people would attend that air show. That helped us decide to avoid the crowd and watch the show from the campground. 

We heard the jets more than we saw them, but were impressed with their performance. 

The sign that kept us from walking to the "point" to see the Blue Angels

Big Lagoon State Park was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sally two years before this visit. We were not surprised by the damage because we camped there several times after the storm. We were amazed that most of the park was still closed from the storm damage. This park had some great trails and places to ride bikes, but those had been closed for more than two years and that limited the activities you could do there. 

The boardwalk remains impassible

Do we want to go back to this campground? Yes, but we will probably wait until they start reopening the areas damaged by Hurricane Sally before making our next reservations there. 

Along the shore in Big Lagoon State Park

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground. We were placed into a campground volunteer's site and were amazed at how many other campers in the park asked us how long we were going to serve as volunteers in the campground 
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides. Our site was huge because it was a volunteer's site. We know that we will have to serve as campground hosts if we ever want that site again
• Our original site could qualify as a golf course sand trap. It had an abundance of soft sand and our truck’s tires were spinning and digging ruts as we tried to park there. Our second site was paved with grass and gravel with a few patches of soft sand. We needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was a long way from our site
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground and in the middle of the second camping loop. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were several bathhouses in the campground 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Bounce, Charge, Circle, Court-TV, Dabl, Get, ION, ME-TV, Stadium and TBD
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Boats returning after watching the Blue Angels show

Path to the shore at Johnson Beach

Johnson Beach

Suwannee River State Park - Live Oak, Florida (April 2022)

There have been days while pulling Rosie, our Airstream trailer, that we wanted to put a lot of miles behind us. On our long travel days, we could be on the road all day. Not this time. 

We were heading to a campground near Jacksonville, Florida, on the Atlantic coast and we didn’t want to arrive there after sunset. That meant we needed to find a place to spend the night while on our way to our destination park. The Suwannee River State Park was close to the Interstate highway and a comfortable number of miles from home. We could arrive in the afternoon, explore the park and be able to arrive at our next campground the following day. 

The Ranger on duty told us Suwannee River was a small park as we checked in. We quickly discovered that he was correct as this may be the smallest state park we have ever camped in. 

You cannot translate "a small park" into one with nothing to do while there. There were several trails to explore and you could not ignore the star of the park, the Suwannee River. But, small park did mean that that you could explore most of it in a day. That was OK to us because this was mostly a nice place to park for the night and our main reason for stopping there had more to do with geography instead of the amenities. From walking around the camping loop, we saw several other rigs that didn’t unhitch for the night. That made it appear to us that some other campers saw this as a convenient stopover for the night. 

Rosie in the campground 

We ended up in one of the shorter sites in the campground. We had to remove our bikes from the rack behind Rosie because there wasn’t enough space to do so once we backed into our site. We were glad we had our bikes to explore the park. 

The Suwannee River 

Another view of the Suwannee River

Including Rosie, there were five Airstream trailers in this campground. The other campers were probably convinced that there was an Airstream rally there. No, but it was a coincidence to see that many Airstream trailers in a small camping loop.

There were a handful of short hiking trails in this park. Most were unsuitable for bicycles. 

Path to one of the trails

Along the trail

Another view along the trail

Two bicyclists set their tents up in a site near Rosie. We found out that they started their trip in Monterey, California and were heading to Miami. It was interesting talking to the cross country bicyclists. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There was only one loop in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site backed into the woods and trees 
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with dirt and we needed to use several leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection. It took nearly 30 feet of sewer hose to connect to it
• There was a dump station in this park.
• The trash dumpster was in the back of the campground 
• There was a clean and up-to-date bathhouse in the campground
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided maybe one bar of 4G voice service over our campsite and data service that reminded me of the days before 3G
• We were able to watch CBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Circle, ION and ME-TV
• According to Google Maps, there were restaurants and shopping about 10 miles from the campground 
• This was a pet friendly park 

Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park - St. George Island, Florida (November 2021)

We never made to St. George Island State Park before this trip. That's odd because if you looked at the campgrounds we tend to visit, it is easy to see that ones along the Gulf Beaches are high on our list. 

One of our favorite Gulf Coast places was St Joseph's Peninsular State Park. What you don’t see in earlier postings in this blog is that we camped there many years in tents before Rosie, our Airstream trailer. It was easier to wait out the occasional thunderstorms once we hung out our tent to dry and started camping in Rosie. We continued to camp there at least once every year. Looking at a map, St George Island is less than 50 miles to the east from Port St Joe. What kept us from St. George Island?

The easy answer was habit. We loved St. Joe Peninsular State Park and felt no need to explore other options. 

Then Hurricane Michael destroyed St. Joseph Park along with its 119 camping sites. That gave us the needed motivation to visit other campgrounds along the Gulf Coast.

A stop at Mexico Beach on the way to St. George Island

Sign at the entrance to the park

But it wasn’t that easy. Getting reservations in any of Florida’s prime state park campgrounds has always been very difficult. I sometimes wonder if everyone else has an uncle in the state’s reservation office looking out for them. My wife has a bumper crop of uncles, but I doubt they have any pull when it comes to making camping reservations.

After looking for an opening a long time, we lucked into landing what had to be a cancellation and booked a week in St. George Island State Park. This gave us time to check out a “new to us” park and to see if it will be added to our list of “must revisit” campgrounds.

Rosie parked at the our campsite

If you ever read reviews about this campground, a reoccurring theme is bugs. We understand why. Our site filled with very angry mosquitoes and noseeums most afternoons. We quickly learned that entering and leaving Rosie needed to be as fast as possible to limit the number of flying pests sneaking inside. Otherwise, we would spend the rest of the day trying to get rid of uninvited and unwanted guests inside Rosie. 

 

The beach and the dunes have to be the main draw here. Locals call this the “forgotten coast.” While it is hardly forgotten, the uncrowded shoreline and lack of condos on the horizon was refreshing. Add in the amazing sand dunes in the park and you have a wonderful campground that lived up to its billing. 

The coastline 

Sunrise at the park

The beach was a short walk from the campground. It was refreshing to stroll down to the shore every day. 

We noticed that the beach sand at this park was different from the sand we saw down the road at Port St Joe. The beach sand there was white and very soft. Beach sand at St. George Island had a slight reddish tint and was compacted down. It reminded us of Daytona Beach. 

A shadow dance along the shore?

There were several hiking trails in this park. We didn’t see any labeled as bike trails and joined in with the other bicyclers riding our bikes on the hiking trails. The downside was that we had to frequently push our bikes through patches of soft sand before we could ride them again. 

Yes, this was a hiking and biking path!

After a bike ride in the soft sand

A campground brochure said there were just a few animals on the island because it was hard for them to get there. We think the raccoons seem to have found a way to the island because we found their sandy tracks on our truck. We also saw the alligator in the pond in front of the campground. 

An alligator along the shore of a lake near the campground

The bird was "on-duty" protecting the shoreline

While the park didn’t have lots of wildlife, we did find a celebrity camping there. The Duke made sure no one was out-of-line in the park. 

A first! John Wayne was in the campground

We talked to the couple in an Airstream trailer parked across from us. We found out the wife grew up on the same street as Becky. What a small world! 

This island must be a million miles away from an AT&T cell tower. Our phones showed a generous 1 bar of service. It took forever for our iPhones to connect to the Internet and text messages tended to fail. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were two loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had some shade
• Most sites had some shrubbery to provide a small level of campground privacy between neighbors 
• Our site was paved with dirt and was surprisingly level side-to-side
• Our site had 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was easy to pull our sewage tote to it
• It was an easy walk to take the trash to the dumpsters at the entrance of the campground
• There were two bathhouses in the campground. The one closest to our site appeared to be clean and maintained 
• The park did not offer WiFi service 
• AT&T provided maybe one bar of 5Ge voice and data service over our campsite. Our data usage was excessive while camping there and we did not stream video, hotspot, nor use data-hog apps. Our theory was that there were multiple errors in the received data on our phone because of the poor cell coverage and it had to be resent multiple times and that chewed up the data plan on our iPhones
• We were able to occasionally watch CBS, CW, FOX and NBC in the mornings and nights using Rosie’s TV antenna. The PBS station's signal was watchable most of the time. Digital channels occasionally seen were Bounce, Circle, Charge, Comet, Dabl, H&I, ION, ME-TV and MY-TV. Make sure you bring your DVDs to this campground 
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

This campground will be remembered in family folklore as the flat tire and binoculars lens cap park. After going for years without a bike tire incident, we had two flats on our bicycles. Perhaps the abundance of sand spurs contributed to this problem. We found new bike tire tubes at a hardware store off the island. 

We had to repair two flat tires on our bikes in the park

We lost a lens cap on our binoculars while on a bike ride on the trail leading to the end of the island. After an afternoon of riding and walking our bikes through soft sand, we realized that we needed to head back to Rosie before darkness stranded us on the trail. Once back at our site, we discovered the lens cap was missing and any attempt to find it would have to wait until morning.

The bike path while searching for the lost lens cap

I retraced our route the next morning looking for that lens cap. It was very windy that night blowing more soft sand on the path making it harder to travel and find it. I was thrilled when I found the wayward lens cap near where we turned around the previous day. 

We took a side trip to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. It remains a “day use” only park, but a ranger said progress is being made on reopening the campground. Yes, campground because the Gulf Breeze campground will be converted into a day use area. The Shady Pines campground will be reconfigured adding more space between sites and will be full hookups. Losing the Gulf Breeze loop means the number of sites available will shrink from 119 to about 60. The ranger’s estimate was that the campground could reopen as early as late fall 2022, but more realistically late spring or summer 2023. 

Side trip to St Joseph Peninsular State Park

You could see that the park was being worked on to fix the hurricane damage

A picnic at the Marina 

The store was open

Not much left of the trees in the park

Our verdict is that St George Island State Park is a beautiful and quiet park. You need to arrive with all of the supplies and food you need because it is a long drive to a store. We enjoyed the park and hope to return. 

Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, Florida (November 2021)

It felt odd to return to Big Lagoon State Park. The park was closed by order of Florida’s governor the last time we camped there in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. That was back in 2020, the early days of COVID. No one at that time had any idea how bad it was going to turn out. What we knew then was that the State of Florida, along with most other states, closed all of public parks and campgrounds and we had to leave after being there for only a few days. 

Sign at entrance to the park

It also felt good to return. 

We read that Hurricane Sally damaged the park and called the Ranger’s Station to learn more before we made our reservations. What we heard wasn’t encouraging. It sounded as if the campground was about the only place in the park that was still open. About three-quarters of the boardwalks were damaged and closed, the observation tower was unreachable and the park's roads were closed beyond the boat launch area. That meant we could not get to the kayak launch area. That was disappointing because we loved exploring the waterways in this park from our kayak. Our expectations were rock bottom after talking to the ranger. We decided that we would simply explore any open trails and enjoy the few areas that were still accessible. 

Rosie's site in the campground 

On our earlier visits to this park, we frequently rode our bikes on the boardwalks from the campground to the bay. We occasionally stopped as we passed by what we called the alligator pond then continued on to the bay side of the park. Stopping was mandatory this time because the rest of the boardwalk was barricaded.  

We hadn’t noticed before the quiet beauty of that spot.  We enjoyed walking there most mornings and afternoons. We remarked several times about how peaceful it was there. In case you are wondering, we did see an alligator in that pond. 

At the "alligator" pond

The reflections were great

We also saw two deer with babies near the alligator pond. Add armadillos, snakes, squirrels and many varieties of birds to that list and you see why some people mentioned wildlife in their reviews of this park.

Yes, you can see the alligator in this photo

The barricades after the "alligator" pond

Experienced campers know that most campgrounds change personalities over weekends. The campground filled with young families with children. We enjoyed seeing excited children laugh and play in the park. 

For some reason, weekenders seem to believe they don’t have a good campfire unless it is belching out a blinding cloud of smoke. It was sadly amusing to see the campground area engulfed in a cloud of smoke as we walked our dog weekend evenings. 

The temperature dipped into the 30s while camping at Big Lagoon. Rosie’s heat pump kept us warm until the temperature was too low for it to keep up and the propane furnace took over. There was a surprising number of people camping in tents and we hoped they were able to stay warm during the cold snap. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were three loops in the campground 
• Some sites had minimal shade. More sites were either full or partial sun. It helps to have a good working air conditioner when camping here 
• Most sites had some space on both sides 
• The surface of our site was dirt. Make that soft dirt. We needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. We noticed that the leveling blocks kept sinking in the sand as we stayed there
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service. It appeared that only a handful of sites had 50 amp service as most sites were 30 amp only
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was near the entrance to the camping area and was a long way from our site.
• The trash dumpsters were near several bathhouses. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were three bathhouses in the campground. They appeared to be clean and well maintained 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 3 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsite
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Bounce, Comet, Court-TV, Get, Grit, ION, ME-TV, Stadium and TBD
• This was a pet friendly park 

We noticed while walking around the campground one afternoon that there were a couple of sites with about six or seven people pitching one-man tents. We talked to several in that group and found out they were a bicycle tour group traveling from San Diego, California, to St Augustine, Florida. They described their bike ride as three weeks before Texas, three weeks in Texas and three weeks after Texas. Most of the members in this group were in their 60s and 70s. That group was gone the next morning as they continued their trip. 

We hope the park recovers from Hurricane Sally. It was easy to tell that they are making progress rebuilding what we have always considered to be a fun park to camp in. 

Wildlife at the park

A selfie

Grayton Beach State Park - Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (October 2021)

We had just about given up on going back to Grayton Beach State Park. It seemed that too many people had discovered it and it was just about impossible to find an opening there. We were surprised to find online a cancellation and quickly made our reservations. 

There are two loops in this campground. One appeared to be older than the other. Our site was in the older loop, which was upgraded a few years ago to full hookups. 

Both loops were next to a dune lake and some sites had a water view. Not ours. Our site backed into the woods and had a thick tree limb that was low enough to keep an eye on when parking Rosie, our Airstream trailer’s name. It is always a good idea to inspect your site before parking your RV to avoid hazards that could damage your camper. 

Rosie in Grayton Beach State Park avoiding the low tree limb

This is definitely a bicycle park, but not for the trails inside it. The best trails are through the beach communities surrounding the park. You could call them bike friendly communities. 

Along the bike path in Watercolor, Fla

One of the parks along the bike paths near Grayton Beach State Park

Speaking about the bike trails, we were surprised to see the number of people using them. I thought that we would not see too many people riding bikes around Grayton Beach during October. I was wrong!

Why were the bike paths, beaches and communities packed with people? We arrived at the peak of Fall Break. That helped explain the large number of families in the area. 

We started identifying what we called “bike rage” on the crowded paths. These were people riding too fast and too close to hikers and other bikers. As much as we enjoyed riding our bikes on the paths in the past, it wasn’t as much fun this time. 

A quick adjustment at the Bike Repair Station

The real star of this park was the beach. The Gulf was a short bike ride in the park from the campground. As with the surrounding communities, we were amazed at the number of day users coming into the park to use the beach facility. 

Becky and Suzy on a trail near our campsite

Rosie in the park

Our campsite

This has been one of our favorite campgrounds for many years. Sadly, this trip was memorable for all the wrong reasons. We will try to avoid camping during school breaks in the future. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were two loops in the campground
• One loop appeared to us to be newer than the other
• Our site was a back in
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with dirt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on its condition
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsites 
• We were able to watch CBS, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were CW, Circle, Dabl, ION and ME-TV
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park. The sandspurs were abundant making it difficult to walk dogs without having to stop and pull sandspurs from their paws and coats 

Selfie at the beach

Shadows as we rode our bikes

Sunrise 

The famous Grayton Beach trees

Sunset

Sunrise