Cayo Costa after Ian
In recent years, I have become very obsessed with Shelling. My shelling experience has been very limited to pretty much Sanibel Island and I have been very pleased with my many findings. Since I have become obsessed I have found myself researching other places to find...
Silver Springs – Monkey Boat
Most of my life I heard stories of the wild herpes monkeys that run free at Silver Springs and I have always wanted to see them. Legend has it that the movie Tarzan was filmed at Silver Springs in the 60’s and they brought in monkeys for the film. The thought was that...
#160 & 161 Hontoon Island & St. Lucie Inlet Preserve – Mission Complete!!!
July 23, 2017 My goal to complete the Florida State Parking Journey was to end at Hontoon Island. I was going to have a giant party to celebrate this accomplishment and my birthday but I woke up one day and decided against the party. I was going to just go to the park...
#157 – 159 Indian Key Historic, San Pedro Underwater and Lignumvitae Key Botanical
July 17, 2017 What an emotional day this was! I had to remind myself, more than once, that at the end of this all, this goal was mine and no one else's! When I started this challenge to myself, my goal was to go to all 161 State Parks in one year's time. On this day,...
My Return to Bill Baggs
September 2019 Quin is from Coral Gables and he wanted to show me his old stomping grounds. I asked him while we were down there if we could go to Bill Baggs and climb the lighthouse because I was unable to do so the last time I was there. We arrived pretty early for...
#155 & 156 Oleta River & Bill Baggs
July 16, 2017 Miami is just an interesting environment all together. You have this crazy city with tons of traffic, buildings and people EVERYWHERE and then little pockets of paradise all around. I would have never imagined state parks being around there, let alone...
#153 & 154 Okeechobee Battlefield & The Barnacle
July 16, 2017 I started another journey to South Florida to visit all of the parks I missed my first time down. Although Okeechobee Battlefield was not actually on the way, I knew this trip was going to be my only chance to see it before my year was up. The road to...
#152 Mound Key
July 1, 2017 The journey to Mound Key changed last minute because my city, DeLand, was voted best Mainstreet in all of the country and I just had to be there for the celebration! So instead of heading down the night before I woke up before the sun and headed down to...
#151 Caladesi Island
June 24, 2017 It was very apparent that summer had arrived. The first time I went to Honeymoon Island, I drove right in! This time there were 3 lanes to choose from and each one of them had about 8 cars in them. The ferry to Caladesi Island is accessed once you get...
#149 & 150 Don Pedro Island & Stump Pass
June 24, 2017 I knew I had to catch a ferry to Caladesi Island but I needed to hit a couple of parks before that one. I heard you needed a boat to get to Don Pedro Island so I got a raft and I figured I would just paddle on over. It seems like they have built a land...
#148 Atlantic Ridge
June 17, 2017 According to the booklet, this park was not open to the public and I could not locate it on the Florida State Parks website so I was not sure how this was going to work out for me. I talked to a few state park rangers that I work with and got the address...
#147 Haw Creek Preserve
June 15, 2017 The day before, Quin and I had such a great time exploring the area that Waccasassa Preserve was in that we simply ran out of time and could not get over to Haw Creek Preserve and boy am I so happy things turned out the way they did! After I got off of...