Fort Clinch State Park

While the north is enjoying feet of snow, we took a couple of days to go to the beach here in Florida (yes, we’re nasty to bring this up). I think this was probably the friendliest park we’ve visited. We talked to so many people from around the country plus Ontario, Quebec, and Taiwan! We heard about how cold it was at home and how much snow they had. Several were moving between state parks (14-day limit per park) so we got some ideas for future trips. One guy was working remotely since his new house was delayed in construction.

We’ve camped here before a couple of times and visited just the fort a couple of times already (1,2,3,4). This time we skipped the fort and just walked the beaches and hiked a trail. Matter of fact, the park is working on the ranger station and the museum so some things were closed. We did walk along the outside of the fort on the beach side.

On our beach walks we saw a dolphin(!), dead jellyfish up on the beach, and pelicans enjoying the day. We missed seeing a submarine surface but heard about it. There’s a base nearby. The locals hear from their contacts when a submarine is leaving or arriving. We heard there were different naval or coast guard boats escorting them out to the ocean.

While walking the beaches, we saw and talked with many people. Some were looking for specific shells and most were looking for fossil shark teeth. The locals come here regularly and may find 20+ teeth in a few hours. We got some hints from the regulars and ended up finding just a couple of teeth. The cool part is that one lady pointed out additional fossils that are washed up on the beach. We met up with her later and she checked our findings. I’ve identified roughly what we have. It was cool to find them!

We biked and then hiked a trail. We laughed at the alligator warning sign. Every Florida park has these signs because every Florida park has alligators. Anyhow, it’s been cold so you don’t see alligators much at this time of the year. We did hear quite a few animals along the trail. We saw at least 8 armadillos on the trail or along the road.

Lots of people from the campground came to enjoy the sunset. I can see why!