North Florida has been an interesting experience for me so far. I felt like maybe my ideas or expectations of it were too high. I had seen a lot of cool places there but up to this point of my journey, I was just not in awe. Then we hit a turning point, literally and started exploring the bottom of the state. The weather started getting warmer and the landscape started changing once we began to ride along the Gulf Coast. At many points we were on the edge of the state on the last pieces of land before the Gulf, that was just too cool!
We wandered through Big Lagoon and walked up to the observation tower, spying on the gulf as far as we could see. We headed to Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou where we were greeted by a very handsome & friendly park ranger that gave us helpful tips about the park! We walked around the bayou and then the rain paid us a visit, again. It was ok this time because part of this park had a scenic tour that was made for you to drive through, not hike! Of course we still managed to get out of the car and walk through the pines to look at the pretty water.
Henderson Beach was a beautiful white sand beach that still had a good amount of visitors even though the wind could knock you over! Our last park of the day was Topsail Hill Preserve. I had no idea what we were about to see. We found our way to the parking lot and then began our hike to the sand dunes. We were picked up along the way by the tram which was good because the distance was a bit longer than we were told.
We made it to the beach just in time to witness the last sunset of 2016! What an awesome moment. We laughed with others, soaked in the beauty, took some pictures and even shot a Facebook live to show all of our friends how we were able to spend New Years Eve!
When we got back to the car we were simply exhausted! We drove a couple of hours back to our campsite, stopping to eat a delicious cheese steak and then asleep by 9 pm. Needless to say our new year was brought in through our dreams!
