Road Trip # 12 – SC, GA, FL

Posted 2 years ago by Kram

Well, we are off on Road Trip 12. This trip is composed of hops throughout State Parks in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The Florida State Parks were reserved 11 months in advance and were difficult to come by. But if you want to avoid the cold weather, then a little planning is a must. We set out from North Carolina in mid-January. 

The first stop was Hunting Island State Park located on the coast, roughly between Charleston and Savannah. Beaufort SC is probably the largest city nearby. Hunting Island State Park is a beautiful state park and contains a very nice campground, lighthouse, hiking trails, boardwalks out into the marshlands, and one of the neatest beaches on the east coast. Especially, the area of the beach called the boneyard. Hardly anyone was ever on the beach. It was like a deserted island. Seaside Bar and Grill down the road from the campground is A+.

 

Our second stop was Crooked River State Park in St. Mary’s, Georgia. We had stopped here before and it is a very conveniently located state park near the Georgia and Florida border. We were here for just two days and mostly rode bikes. 

From St. Mary’s, GA, we had a long drive to our next stop, which was a week at Henderson Beach State Park located in Destin FL. Nerak says it is her favorite camping spot of all camping spots encountered so far in our travels. She has unbelievable campground standards, so that is really saying something. Henderson Beach SP is located on a soft white sand beach, where you can walk for miles in either direction. The State Park is immaculate. The location is perfect. There is not a bad site in the entire campground. For this first week we were in Loop B, site 30, which is a very large and private pull through. As a bonus, every retail establishment and imaginable restaurant is in Destin and in very close proximity to the campground. We even discovered Whataburger on this segment of the trip. We had In-N-Out Burger when we were in Arizona, and now we had Whataburger. I would have to throw my hat in the Whataburger camp. McDonalds, Hardees, and Burger King, have a lot to learn. Of course we also continued our pursuit of the best pizza in the United States. We ate at Merlin’s Pizza while we were in Destin and it was very good. 

After a week at Henderson Beach SP in Florida, we headed northeast to Seminole State Park, located in the bottom west corner of Georgia, near Bainbridge. Not much up there but it is a nice state park for walking and bike riding. We did a lot of both. A very peaceful place. The camp sites are large and very well spaced out. Time flew during our two week stay on Seminole Lake. They only had ten campsites open during our stay as they were preparing for some substantial renovations.

While we were staying at Seminole State Park,  we managed a day trip to Andersonville National Historic Site. This was a very nice day trip to learn just a little more about our history. Amazing that the 16 acre site was a “prison pen” opened in 1864 to hold 10,000 men, and ended up growing in size to 26 acres and held 32,000 men during its peak. There were no shelters, just what the men could build with what they had. One small creek dissected the camp and was used for everything. One can only imagine. The Andersonville National Cemetery contains over 13,000 burial sites from the period. 

We left Seminole and headed due south across the panhandle to our next stop, which was Dr. Julian Bruce State Park located on St. George Island. A unique state park. The eBikes got quite a workout because you can ride for miles and miles and miles. The only negative was the pesky sand fleas, at least that is what I am calling them. It is good to see totally undeveloped coastline.

Since we are hopping all over the place, we had one night at Ponce De Leon RV Park, before heading to Henderson Beach State Park for another week. This time we had site 27 in loop B. I think I liked this site 27 a little better than our previous site 30, but like I mentioned before, there is not a bad site in this campground. I highly recommend Henderson Beach State Park.

Next up was a long drive east across the Florida panhandle to Anastasia State Park in St Augustine. This is another one of those reservations that you must work at. We landed in Sand Dollar Loop, site 67. Not a bad site, but Nerak prefers concrete, gravel, or asphalt. Sand loop is a good name for it, because it is sand. The campsites are a mixed bag, some sites are wide and not very deep, some sites are deep and narrow, some sites have precariously low tree branches as well. The sites are pretty much an adventure and the luck of the draw. There are definitely nice sites and crappy sites, and the RV Length can come into play. One really good thing, its a short walk to the farmers market from the campground. Good selection of pastries. 

 

During the two weeks in St. Augustine we made several trips to walk around the historic downtown. I rank St. Augustine above Charleston and Savannah. The National Park Service has done a great job with Castillo de San Marcos and it is definitely a highlight .  We also enjoyed the San Sebastian Winery tour and tasting. We also drove down the coast to Fort Matanzas and took the ferry ride out to the site. Between historic downtown, the lighthouse, the forts, and the Farmer’s Market, there was plenty to do. We even learned about the Datil Pepper, which is apparently unique to St. Augustine. In summary, there is plenty to do in St. Augustine, and with the Anastasia State Park campground only a handful of miles from all of the attractions, it is easy to stay busy without the rush. We even slipped down to Davenport FL to visit our favorite relatives.

A quarter mile North of Anastasia State Park is the St. Augustine lighthouse. The current tower was completed in 1874. There are 219 steps to climb to the top and the safety pamphlet warns you not to walk backwards.

And 20 miles South of Anastasia State Park is Fort Matanzas, which is a gun tower built in 1740 to protect St. Augustine from the south along the Matanzas river.

We headed back North after 55 nights of Cougar camping. We stopped at the Yemassee KOA for one night to clean out our tanks, and then off to home. Time to plan road trip number 14. I think we will skip number 13. Road trip 14 is going to take us up through Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and back to North Carolina.

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