Exploring St. George Island

Sunday promised to be a beautiful day, and although it was only in the upper 60s, we had full sunshine which made it feel much warmer.  We took advantage of our free time to explore St. George Island.

 

The island is accessed by a bridge out of Eastpoint, arriving at the center of of the island where the lighthouse is located.

The island is narrow, with just two parallel roads running east and west in the populated area, with most of the beach houses on the gulf side.

 

 

 

 

We drove to the west first, on the north side, and then back on the south side, where the beach houses lining both sides of the road reminded us a lot of Gulf Shores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at one of the public beach access areas, where a few people were out enjoying the beautiful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a really pretty beach, and we were surprised that the water wasn’t even too cold.

 

Leaving that end of the beach, we drove back east, through the small commercial area of the island and past the rest of the beach rental homes.

The east end of the island is occupied entirely by St. George Island State Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the gulf side of the road is miles and miles of beach.  There are 2 main beach areas with large parking lots, picnic shelters and restrooms, and multiple other small parking areas along the road with small boardwalks to the beach.  Most of the dune areas between the road and the shoreline are roped off for nesting shorebirds.

We parked at one of the main picnic areas and walked along the beach.  There were just a few people there, and with all that space, you felt like you were all alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce found a jellyfish in the sand, and helped it make it’s way back into the water . . . at least I think we were helping it!

 

We continued to walk, and were amazed by the number of sand dollars we saw – but all of them were broken up – I’ve never seen so many in one place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce eventually got warm enough to take his shirt off – he wished he had worn a muscle shirt!

 

Sometimes Bryce insists on getting into every one of my pictures, sometimes he won’t cooperate at all and pose for me, and other times he takes a pretty good picture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had him take a new one of us for our work camper resume, too.

Not a formal portrait, but then, there’s really nothing formal about us!  It turned out pretty good, I think!

From the beach, we drove through the campground, which is on the bay side of the island, separated from the road by sand dunes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The campground was pretty nice, and we were surprised at the number of sites that looked big enough for a big rig.  Water and electric hookups only, though, including on the host sites, so we could only do a short visit here . . . and it is pretty far from everything.  You have to go all the way to Tallahassee or Panama City for a Publix!

We drove back to the center of the island, and stopped for an ice cream cone before we headed back over the bridge.

Yeah, I think he earned those calories!

Not a bad way to spend the 1st day of Spring!!