St. George's Island State Park, FL

Our travels continued onto the coast of Florida. First we went back to Henderson Beach State and spent 6 days enjoying the white sugar sand that looked like snow and the emeral waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We know that you have seen the pictures from there already, so I'll move down the coast to St. George's Island State Park. This park is also on the Gulf of Mexico, but the beach is more like the Atlantic Ocean with browner sand and the water is a darker color. This beach had much better shells, which we collected with abandment! We will be bringing them home to share with the grandkids. The bath house on this beach was on stilts, as were the cottages on the island. This is in case of high tides or hurricanes. The beach flag was red most of our visit as the surf was high and unsafe for swimming.

Driving to the campsite there were 2 brackish ponds, one on either side of the road. These are ponds that are fed both seawater and freshwater. These ponds were home to a large male alligator. He was close to 8 to 9 feet in length and was out and about most days. The weather was warm enough that he was still hunting, one time we saw him with something in his mouth, either a turtle or large fish. The alligator shared the ponds with large wading birds and ducks. He never did venture into the campground though. Thank goodness for that!!