Anastasia State Park

November 20-December 5, 2024                          Most Recent Posts:
Anastasia State Park                                    Fernandina Beach Florida
site 137                                                  Lovely Days at Fort Clinch State Park
St Augustine Florida

I left Fernandina Beach and drove 81 miles down the Atlantic Coast to St Augustine and Anastasia State Park.  My site was #137 in the maritime forest with Live Oaks everywhere.  I took this shot when I got leveled and the slides out.

After a minimal set up.

There are two campgrounds in Anastasia.  This one is the original single loop with 36 sites.  All campsites are surrounded by Live Oaks as is the road.   It’s beautiful and cozy.

I’ve started a new tradition of which I’m sure David would approve.  Since on moving day, I have to do all the pack up and take down both in and out AND do all the driving AND do all the back in and set up,  I take myself out to dinner IF there is a restaurant calling my name.

This time it was a home town favorite, Mellow Mushroom, with the Holy Shitake pizza.   I got a medium so I’d have enough for 3 meals.  Not only is it delicious but I love the spiral.

I arrived too late with the early sunset these days to walk to the beach which is significantly farther than at Fort Clinch but the next day and all other days of my stay I was out and over. 

Anastasia State Park protects its wonderful dunes with this amazing boardwalk.  I’ve been to most of the Florida State Parks and in my experience this is the longest boardwalk over protected dunes.   They are serious about keeping people off the dunes.  Hats off top them!

You do eventually get to the ocean and are greeted by one of the widest beaches.

Here’s how pleased I am with the dune protection and the WIDE beach.

Pretty sure this guy was pleased with it all too.

The following beach pictures were taken on multiple visits and are in no particular order.

Treasurers I did not bring home with me …..take only …… leave only ……..
I did not set any of this up.  It’s just how I found it on the beach.

Anastasia has 4 miles of white quartz sand beach.  I kept putting off walking to the point to see the view and when I finally did, I walked into a white out.   Only the dunes closest to me were visible and then they faded away in the distance.

No view.  Should have planned better.

November and December in Florida are normally lovely with highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s.  Not this year.   Notice the inside temperature is only 6 degrees warmer than outside.  Praise the inventor of the electric blanket.

Everything in this post is within walking distance of my campsite including two very nice trails.   This one is the Ancient Dunes Trail which leads to and over a series of ancient dunes which were once just before the ocean front.   The ocean was much further inland then.  Unfortunately they don’t define when or what they mean by ancient.   But it must have been a VERY long time ago for the ocean to move over a mile east and for these sands to be enriched enough to replace sea oats with a forest.

The park protects these dunes as well with stairs.  Gotta love a trail through the woods that has stairs.

Both Saturdays I was in the campground, I walked to the farmer’s market which is held on the St Augustine Amphitheater grounds and accessible to the campground by a passcode gate.

My favorite vendor with focaccia bread, pastries, tarts, cinnamon roll bread and other high carb yummies.

The Marsh Trail runs from between the two campgrounds to the ranger station at the front of the park.

Notice the mangroves.

At this point the trail begins to move away from the marsh and toward the sandy forest.

It’s a one way trail.  Get to the ranger station and either walk the road back or turn around and retrace your steps.  This shot was taken on the way back coming down from the woods to the water. 

The St. Augustine Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in the continental United States.  In 1589 Italian cartographer Giovanni Battista Boazio published his map of the raid of Sir Francis Drake on St. Augustine three years earlier. The map is the first documented archival reference of a wooden watchtower at the end of Anastasia Island. The watchtowers were erected by the Spanish crown during the building of the Castillo De San Marcos to keep enemy ships from taking Anastasia Island. The watchtower at the north end of the island eventually became the St. Augustine Lighthouse, and the one at the sound end became Fort Matanzas National Monument.

The lighthouse is about a 4.5 miles round trip walk from Winnona.  Part of that for me was the Swamp Trail.  There are many events at the lighthouse.  As the Lens Turns made me laugh out loud.  How many people are alive who get that reference.  Do you?

There is a maritime museum here as well.  The lighthouse is 165 feet tall and you can pay to climb the 219 steps to the observation tower which David and I did it in the past.   If you’d like to see us inside the lighthouse in 2017, use this link.
I’m not quite ready to relive that memory yet.  Maybe next visit.

The other thing that comes with your ticket is admission to the beautiful Light Station, the home of the light keepers.

The grounds are stunning with live oak alleys.

And on the way back you could stop at this food truck right outside the Anastasia Gate.  Lots of folks from the park walk out for lunch.

Another thing I did nearly daily was to get out for dawn and sunrise.

This is dawn as I start up the boardwalk toward the beach.

The crescent moon is still in the sky.

These photos too are a combination of days of sunrises.

Also within walking distance (4 miles round trip) is the Gypsy Cab Company restaurant.  This year was the first time I’d seen it though I learned it opened in 1983.  They claim to have introduced “urban cuisine” and since I had no idea what that was,  I thought I’d walk over and give it a try.

As soon as Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas decorations come out.

No idea about the name.  Cab??  Restaurant??  Looks like a Yellow Cab to me.

Just click on the menu to enlarge it if you want to see what “Urban Cuisine” is in their definition.

I’ll close with this surprise discovery on the beach.  Don’t over look the Santa hats.  It seems a fun way to end this post of all things you can do at Anastasia State Park without even getting in your car.

I imagine you are wondering if I even went into Saint Augustine.  Yes I did and that’s the next post.