The Panhandle/Gulf Shores

Shout out to Florida and Alabama State Parks!!

Our last few stops have been in TH Stone Memorial State Park on St. Josephs Peninsula, FL , Saint Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, FL and Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. Although we had several sunny days, our stays coincided with the Arctic cold spell crossing the country so the temps dropped lower than normal. We were hoping to take advantage of all that coastal real estate by spending time on the beaches but the cool air didn’t beckon us! There was some serious shell collecting, and some beautiful dune and beach walks, but not the balmy escape the winter weather we were hoping to find. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed all these state parks and were struck by the investment made and the care taken by both states to make their parks affordable, accessible and beautiful. The campsites had beautiful boardwalks to accommodate exploring the dunes, great beach access to walk the shores, beautiful campsites, friendly staff and great birding, wildlife viewing…..St. Andrews even had cool glamping tents you could rent! All in all, great park stays!

St. Joseph’s peninsula was beautiful with the gulf on one side and a bay on the other..the shoreline was full of shells, horseshoe crabs, jellyfish with hardly anyone on the beach. We walked for miles only seeing a few people…St. Andrews had great biking trails and wonderful waves for kite-surfing and Gulf State Park had 23 miles of hiking/biking trails, pickle ball courts, over 400 sites, a lake and a beautiful lodge and pier to explore. (BTW…if you don’t have the Merlin ID app or the SEEK app, download them! So fun to have to identify birds, plants, animals, etc…)

The towns with the exception of Apalachicola weren’t much to write home about, but we were fine spending our time hiking and relaxing. We even saw a new animal to add to our wildlife sighting list: an ARMADILLO! He was rooting around next to the boardwalk and provided a few minutes of entertainment watching him cruise around!

next up….heading north to Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham for Civil Rights history sites.