St. George Island State Park

After two long driving days, we arrived at St. George Island State Park just east of Panama City on the Florida panhandle.

St. George Island is a 22-mile barrier island that hosts some of Florida's most beautiful beaches. Greg had heard about it two years ago from another camper, and last year he visited it for two nights on his drive back to Minnesota. He really wanted me to have a chance to see it, and I can see why.

The island is very undeveloped and has miles of marsh, dunes, and inlets. In addition, February is definitely off season this far north in Florida, so the the island feels very remote and uncrowded. The state park occupies the far eastern end of St. George Island with nine miles of spectacular shoreline, dunes, and salt marshes. Even the vegetation is different than the state parks further south in Florida— we have lots of pine trees at our campsite which makes us feel right at home!

We arrived at about noon — after getting set up, we eat our first lunch outside, and then went on a long bike ride into the small town that is on the island. In the center of town is the St. George lighthouse along with a limited number of shops and restaurants. This is definitely not a place for people that like nightlife, eating out, and/or shopping, but it suits us just fine!

We enjoyed the nice temperatures today, because rumor has it the cold snap that hit Minnesota this week is dropping down to visit Florida tomorrow.