Van Camping Fort Clinch

Yay, fall is finally here in Florida and for me that means it is cool enough to go camping again. For the first excursion I decided to visit Fort Clinch and Little Talbot Island State park. These parks are on the North East corner of Florida and Fort Clinch actually overlooks Cumberland Sound and you can see into Georgia from there.

On this excursion, my husband Ron came accompanied me as we happen to also be celebrating our 29th yr anniversary. It’s a good test to see how well the minivan accommodates 2 adults. The first evening we took a long afternoon walk on the beach next to the fort where the big activity is fishing and hunting for the elusive sharks teeth that are reputed to wash up here.  After a while of searching unsuccessfully for sharks teeth, I asked a guy that was fishing if he had seen any and he pulled out this pill bottle half full of teeth that he had found that day.

Sunset through the sea oats

Shrimp boat coming in for the night

Gnarly tree

After sunset we made it to the campground where we discovered that the sites are actually a short walk from the parking area. This was a bit of a hassle as it meant we had to carry stuff back and forth from the van when at that point we really just wanted to chill. Ron made a fire and we had a nice evening.

The next day, we explored inside Fort Clinch.

The brickwork is beautiful and well preserved.

After this, we explored a different area of the coast and continued to search for shark’s teeth which sort of became an obsession with a contest about who could find the first one.( I did).

Also picked up a few shells.

 

Terns

Terns

We took our morning coffee to the beach and watched and I photographed the birds.

 

After sunset

Headed back to the campsite after watching the sunset on the beach. Once again getting back after dark. This night we just had dinner cold and set up our chairs next to the van and didn’t bother with the actual campsite. Much more relaxing especially after a long day exploring. My iphone step counter claims 15,033 steps. As an added bonus, we saw a nice shooting star.

I just love the sea oats.

The Wave

The last day, before heading back to St Petersburg, we stopped at Little Talbot State Park. This is a totally undeveloped barrier island and it was beautiful.

I forgot to bring my tripod from the van so I tried to set up a long exposure using my backpack as a tripod. That didn’t work too well.

Little Talbot Island

He caught pompano and redfish.

How does the turtle know where to cross???

 

Osprey

Selfie of Ron and I on our 29th year anniversary. I was happy to have his company on this excursion and I hope he will come along again in the future. (Plus he carried my heavy camera backpack). Two of us in the van was actually more comfy than we thought and we slept in both mornings even though I thought we would be up to see the sunrise.

Photos printed on mugs, towels, wall tapestries, wood, metal,canvas etc. for sale at lisa-malecki.pixels.com

What I learned:

My camera batteries are getting a bit old now (2 yrs) and with heavy use, they are not holding a charge as long. I thought I had them both charged when we set out but soon discovered that one was not. I had to run the van for 30 mins to recharge the battery. Since then, I bought a Tripp-Lite 200 watt inverter so that I will be able to charge the battery off of the solar power source.

Also, I’d rather van camp at sites where I can pull directly up to the site.

Plus I bought an updated version of my favorite camping guide. I am always ready to benefit from the research of those who have gone before. My old version was from 2000. The new one is c 2016. The author is Johnny Malloy