Lovely Days at Fort Clinch State Park

November 5 – November 20, 2024                             Most Recent Posts:
Fort Clinch State Park  Site 11                              October 2024 – A Mixed Bag
Fernandina Beach, Florida                         I Don’t See Nearly Enough of Them

My winter travels began on November 5 when I pulled into site 11 at Fort Clinch State Park for a full two weeks.

There are two campgrounds here.  A larger river campground and this smaller 20 site “Atlantic” campground. It’s not actually on the ocean though.   You have to walk along the Amelia river beach to arrive at the Atlantic.  I really do love walking on the beach here and the little town of Fernandina Beach is wonderful.  

I learned this year that I’m not the only one who thinks Fernandina Beach is a great place.  John Grisham built a house here in 2014 to add to his collection of 4, one of which is near the farm in Virginia, another is in Chapel Hill North Carolina where David and I were living when we met.   Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey also live here.  For whatever interest that is.

My routine is to be up for dawn which is very reasonably at 6 am these days.  I take the boardwalk from the campground to the sand trail which takes me out to the Amelia River.   This is my every morning, rain or shine although it has been nearly 100% shine.  You can see in the picture below how close the boardwalk is.

Sunset behind the campground is at about 5:25 each day.   I didn’t take as many pictures of the sunset as the sunrise but here are some taken during the first week of my stay.  I love the sea oats.

Sunset shots were taken with my back to the water.  This is the boardwalk to protect the dunes.  It’s leading to the campground.

I ridiculously took 550 pictures during my two weeks here.  Most of them were of sunrises like these.

Every morning was cloudy at the horizon line…..for two weeks but only once was there spitting rain. 

Sometimes the sun couldn’t be seen until it was above the horizon line.  This spot at the confluence of the Amelia River and the Atlantic was a gathering spot for the birds.  I took a shot here nearly every day.

I took daily walks along the shore, usually right after sunrise, 4 miles or so. 

I only saw the surfers one day.  It’s November,  they didn’t have on full wet suits. 

If you’d like to see this 20 second video I took of them, use this link.

Nature’s wonders appeared at my feet.

This artistic scene was amazing.  The color of the sand is due to the dawn color.

Fading dawn colors on other days.

Pelicans skimming close to the water blend in so well they are hard to see.

Notice the clouds in these pictures.  They were a constantly varied painting.

Nature’s art at the beach is abundant.

At low tide the beach at Fort Clinch is very wide.

But best know when it’s  high tide.  I could barely walk the beach without getting my shoes wet.  I had to wait for the waves.  This is on my way to the Fort itself.

These pictures are taken on my return trip. That’s the fort in the distance.  I have visited it on an earlier trip with David.   As I am not a big fan of military history,  walking by was sufficient for me.

Some days I did half my hiking on the beach and the other on the trails at the park.  They wander through the maritime forest beyond the sand dunes.

Luckily I only came back once with these hitchhikers.  They are the devil to get off your clothing including shoes and best done with gloves.  They are absolutely horrid for poor dogs’ paws.   I’ve always heard them called sandspurs but others say sandburs.   I’m wondering if they have them out west too.  Western readers?

I was very lucky to come upon this Zebra Longwing, the Florida State Butterfly.  Sadly, I have seen very few butterflies these last few years.    Is that the same where you are?

Another piece of  luck was to be in this open sky area for the Super Moon.  Wish I’d had Gaelyn here to photograph it for me.

One more post from this stop coming up next will be  about the darling little town of Fernandina Beach.  Hopefully it won’t take the two weeks this one took to post.