Dunn’s Creek State Park is a lovely spot covering over 6300 acres. Entering the park, we noticed beautiful rolling hills which gave way to more level ground as we got further down the road toward the water.
Parking and Trails
There are two parking areas, each with picnic tables and open areas. The second parking area looks like it may be for a group camp, as there’s a locked bathhouse and a fire ring. It would be a nice spot for an overnight! The trailheads are also at this parking area. Four trails traverse Dunns Creek State Park: the 1.4 mile Green trail; 1.8 mile Yellow trail, 2.6 mile red trail, and the Blue trail, which has a short option (looks like about 4 miles) and a long option (6.1 miles).
Steve and I meandered on the Yellow Trail, traveling through a hydric area and into a really pretty pine forest. In just the first quarter mile, we saw orchids, a Lobelia (new to me, and very pretty), and SO MANY AIRPLANTS! We watched an eagle fly with a large branch in its beak; it appears that home improvements are being made somewhere in the forest.
Retirement Means No Crowds!
We had the entire park to ourselves nearly the entire Tuesday morning we were there! We saw a ranger leaving as we arrived, I noticed a motorcyclist as we came off the trail, and Steve saw boaters on the river. There were no other cars in the parking lot, and we thoroughly enjoyed the solitude. We watched the water and read in the peaceful silence.
We stopped for lunch in Astor at Drifters, and enjoyed really good Cuban Sandwiches. A blue heron watched us watching him, and we traveled home to begin planning our next trip. It’s going to involve a picnic and more time reading under the maples along the shoreline, I’m certain.
The weather has really been doing a number on outdoor adventures this year. In February, a long-planned adventure had to be called off due to heat, in March it was so cold tender plants had to be protected, and an April panhandle trip saw weather much cooler than we like and much rainier than we hoped. But Judy and I are tough, so we didn’t cancel our trip to Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.
Some think of sand dunes as an impediment to getting the cooler, chairs, and umbrella down to the beach, and they do make getting to the water a bit harder. But they’re worth the struggle!
Well, to start, they’re highly unusual! Found in only four countries, including Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, there are 15 named coastal dune lakes in Walton County, Florida (they are also found in Oregon, which has a system of 40 such lakes; and South Carolina, which is unsure how many dune lakes they have). Florida’s dune lakes are usually formed where fresh water seeps through the sand, forming shallow, water-filled depressions. Other sources of fresh water include streams and rain water.
After an afternoon and evening of orienting ourselves to Marine Lab, Tuesday morning started with breakfast and a short class on seagrass ecology. Florida has three predominant species of seagrass: turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), shoal grass (Halodule wrightii), and manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme). Turtle grass has a broad, flat blade that is rounded at the top. Shoal grass, the first grass to grow in an area that has been disturbed, has a narrower blade with a flat or notched top. Manatee grass is cylindrical and has very shallow roots.
It’s too hot to be out on the trail, but it’s almost never too hot to be on the water, and I was recently fortunate enough to attend a week-long class at Marine Lab Key Largo. The class, Coastal Marine Ecology, was marketed to teachers. Since I consider myself an informal educator, I signed up way back in February. Focusing on the basics of the marine ecology of the Upper Keys, the class was an in-depth exploration of the interaction among seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reefs.
Just a quick little post in honor of National Walking Day. Last Sunday, some of us needed a day in the Forest, so we hiked from a trailhead on SR 19 back to Buck Lake. Along the way, we stopped at Dora’s Pond.
This is a beautiful route, suitable for beginners. The trail is well-marked and easy to follow.
Visiting the main park at Silver Springs is a bit of time traveling. Once a privately owned park, it sometimes hosted small concerts and large car shows, and it retains an air of those glory days. While it is near the Ocala National Forest, it is not part of the Forest.
Steve and I recently drove on Jane’s Scenic Drive and we were . . . well, I guess conflicted is the right word. Jane’s Scenic Drive is in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. The Fakahatchee is home to so many plants and animals found only in the continental US that I’m not even going to attempt to list them. The Ghost Orchid is probably only behind the Florida Panther as the best-known Strand resident.
Okay, maybe we didn’t really ring in the New Year at Cayo Costa, but we got there as quickly as we could! We began our adventure by traveling to Pine Island and handing off our camping gear to the helpful folks at the Tropic Star ferry, and enjoyed the short boat ride to Cayo Costa State Park.
We had done a day trip to Cayo Costa before, but felt that it just wasn’t worth the travel time. We wanted a better experience, and so we decided to stay for several days just as soon as I could get a reservation to camp.
You already know that I’m a tent camper at heart, but I’ll camp in the pop-up with Steve. There’s no way to get a pop-up on the ferry, so instead, we rented a cabin. Florida State Park cabins are generally almost luxurious, with full kitchens and bathrooms. This cabin was rustic, and we just loved it! There were 6 bunks, a picnic table, a couple of small shelves, and plenty of nails from which to hang lanterns or wet towels or whatever else needed hanging. Just outside the door was another picnic table, a fire ring, and a grill.
Home, sweet home, January 2-6, 2022Well, I’ve slept on comfier beds, but we would camp here again, and I fully intend to!
We ended up doubling the mattresses on the two lower bunks we occupied, and were still not quite comfortable, but we were able to sleep. Notice the large windows right next to the lower bunks! These made sure we always had a breeze and help keep the cabins habitable during the long hot summers.
Next to our cabin was a bathhouse comprising restrooms, outdoor showers, and a dishwashing sink (cold water only!). The restrooms were locked during our entire stay, but the new bathhouse was just a short walk away. I’m glad the “big” bathhouse was convenient, because the little shower looked pretty grubby. Full disclosure: I used it anyway, because it offered WAY more privacy than the showers at the big bathhouse, which are outdoors and fully open on one of the wide sides!
Not as pretty as the other showers, but I appreciated the privacy!
Well, no. I just could not enjoy a shower here . . . and not because the water is cold. I’m just not an exhibitionist!
THERE IS NO ELECTRICITY FOR CAMPERS ON CAYO COSTA. I put that in all caps not because I was surprised, but so that YOU won’t be surprised. Cayo Costa is not the Florida State Park camping experience you’ll get at most parks. The lack of electricity is the biggest difference but here’s my favorite difference: the peace and tranquility of being on an island where the only other people for most hours of the day are fellow campers.
Beautiful bathhouse. But be advised: there is neither electricity nor hot water. It’s not hard to live without these things while you’re camping, but be prepared!
Once the ferry docked at Cayo Costa, we were instructed to load our camping gear in the back of the pick-up truck and take a seat on the tram. The Ranger delivered campers to their sites less than a mile from the dock. We made our beds, made ourselves a cold drink, and prepared for an afternoon walk on the beach. I changed into my sunglasses, which I would not mention except for the fact that . . . well, I’ll tell you why later.
During the winter, the last ferry for day-trippers leaves the island at 2:00. So for the rest of the day, only campers and rangers are on the island. This, friends, is bliss. We walked and walked and walked some more, and saw very few people. What we saw a lot of were shells and small pieces of driftwood and birds and all the things that make the beach special.
We enjoyed our first walk on the beach, although the windy weather had the water stirred up and it was not the beautiful tropical blue-green we had hoped to see. Still, it was a beautiful walk. We walked to the north and then took the upland trail back to our cabin, where we enjoyed a simple dinner and went to bed early. Going to bed early seems to be a theme for us these days; when we’re camping, we can barely keep our eyes open until dark!
We slept for a few hours, until I woke up to pee. On my short trip to the bathhouse, the splendor of the sky blew me away. Even though I was WEARING MY SUNGLASSES, because y’know, I had lost my regular glasses. So many stars! I believe it might be the most stars I’ve seen in the night sky as an adult. It was so stunning I made Steve come outside and look at it with me.
We decided to walk on the beach — a night walk on the beach is something we’ve not done together in a very long time, and it was just as lovely as you’d expect. I mean, you can just picture it, right? An old lady and her man, she in a nightshirt and he in a pair of gym shorts. . . and wait a minute . . . is she wearing SUNGLASSES? Yeah. I was. But really, it was lovely to walk on the beach with the love of my life, feeling like there was no one else on the planet. It was very windy, though, and we probably walked out about a mile and back before we decided to pack it in. I would have been happier if I had been able to see more, but sunglasses on a new moon night is just not conducive to seeing.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early,. The sun was not yet up, so I brushed my teeth and sat outside at the picnic table. As soon as it was light, I walked down to the ranger station. First, though, I walked through the tent camper loop, because I took a wrong turn. It was fun, though, to feel like the only person up and around. When I got to the ranger station and dock, I sat at a picnic table and listened to a really enjoyable book, The Lost Queen, a novel by Signe Pike. When the camp store opened, I picked up a bag of charcoal and some lighter fluid. Here’s my advice: don’t buy your charcoal on the island. We intentionally planned to buy charcoal there, because we were limited to 50 pounds of stuff, but it’s nearly criminally expensive and I’ll never do it again. If we had not had a gorgeous steak dinner planned, I’d have made do with the camp stove. At any rate, I pacified myself with the certainty that overpriced charcoal is the least of the world’s problems, loaded my backpack, asked the Rangers for the time of the next low tide and a place to charge my phone, and headed back to camp for something hot to drink.
The hiking at Cayo Costa is terrific. You can’t really get lost, although I did take a wrong turn the first time I set out on my own. We hiked enough every day that we were worn out by the time we finished the dinner dishes.
About charging your phone: the park website says you can charge your phone at the dock. Well, no, you cannot. There is a duplex outlet on a pole outside the ranger station, and that’s the only place electricity is available to campers since a storm took out all the charging ports at the dock. It’s a good system, though, and if you are willing to leave either your phone or a good battery pack overnight, chances are good you will have battery for your entire stay. If both plugs are in use, just wait an hour or so and you’ll have your turn.
Cayo Costa is the most ALIVE place we’ve visited. Nearly everything we picked up on the beach was alive or had something alive on it. This tiny sea star was probably about half an inch from center to tip. We saw many sea stars, all of which were alive and returned to the Gulf waters. Sea urchins were plentiful, and while they were likely doomed, we also left those on the beach unless they were empty.
It isn’t often that I will describe a trip as idyllic, but this was an idyllic trip. We spent our days like this: I would rise before the sun, walk down to the ranger station and charge my phone for a bit, listen to my wonderful book, and then walk back to camp. When Steve got up, we would walk the beach or hike the trails of Cayo Costa. The trails are nice — well marked and you can’t get lost. On Quarantine Trail, there’s a cemetery that was as peaceful as every other remote cemetery I’ve ever visited. We tried to hike the Osprey Trail, but the recent rains had flooded the trail and we could not get through. After Steve walked my feet off, we’d have dinner, do our dishes, and laugh about falling asleep before the sun set. One night, Steve took my phone down to charge and it was there the next morning when I went to get it. I did a lot of walking in the dark, and loved the free feeling of being safe and alone for hours on end.
We found this sweet bug the first time we walked to the camp store together. I just love finding painted rocks! I always leave them for the next person to enjoy, but this one was so pretty I seriously considered picking it up.
The one day that we actually sunbathed, we also gathered so many seashells that I actually ended up taking some back to the beach. The variety of shells is amazing, and we found many live shells. When I sorted them out at the campsite, I realized that even on the empty shells, some had living limpets attached, so I took those back to the beach.
The wrack line along the beach at low tide is great for seashells and other wonderful finds. I could have poked around in the seaweed all day long! Even Steve had fun picking out just the perfect specimens.
Now that we are back home and finally unpacked, I cannot stop thinking about that night sky and the feeling of safety and remoteness. I am going to do a two week trip next year, from new moon to full moon, and see what magic I can work with those gentle waves and that amazing sky. Steve will come for part of the time and bring a load of fresh groceries, and we will both come home tanned and relaxed.
