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| Oystercatchers doing their thing on an exposed oyster bar |
The crown jewel of the Forgotten Coast is St. George Island,
and the most gorgeous part of the island is the St. George Island State
Park. We visited the island four
times.
Wild and natural St. George Island State Park Beach
The Forgotten Coast has two other barrier islands in
addition to St George. St. Vincent Island can only be reached by boat and is a
wildlife preserve. Dog Island, also only
reached by boat, has some vacation homes on it.
Walking out one of the beach access points near the vacation rentals
St. George Island is 22 miles long and is reached by a 4 ½ mile
bridge. The center 6 blocks of the
island is what passes for a tourist center here – 1 big swimwear store, a
handful of two story motels, the lighthouse (see previous post), restaurants,
ice cream shops, a kayak/paddleboard/bicycle rental shop. The rest of the island is an eclectic
assortment of vacation rental homes and condos, with quite a few still undeveloped
lots. It has lovely, uncrowded white
sand beaches along the green waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The west end of the island is a gated
community and the east end is St. George Island State Park.
Naturally formed sand dunes
We drove out to the island in between rain storms on our
first full day on the Forgotten Coast.
We drove through the park, figuring out where the bath houses and boat
ramps were located. The small campground,
nestled in a pine and palmetto forest, is very popular and hard to book a spot in.
Sanded in bike trail
On our next visit, we took our bicycles and biked around
the park. It was a very windy day, so
the park was not busy with beach visitors.
The park has many scenic, natural dunes.
Unlike the human-assisted dunes of the NC Outer Banks that make a straight
line barrier between houses and the sea, these dunes are uneven; forming in groups,
some tall and some short. There is a
bike/hiking trail through the last undeveloped miles of the park to the point
of the island. However, Hurricane Michael
deposited a lot of sand over the trail, making it impossible for us to
ride. Guess we’ll need to return and
hike it some day.
The motor home bike rack didn't fit out little car so well
This was our first trip carrying the bikes on the new
trailer hitch/bike rack on our little Ford Fiesta tow car. We used the sturdy Thule bike rack we use to
carry our bikes on the motor home. It wasn't the right fit for our tiny car. After
this one use, we ordered a bike rack in a different format that works better. So, we are now traveling
with 2 bike racks – one on the motorhome and one on the tow car.
The Bay side of the island
On our next visit, we explored the western part of the island, before you get
to the gated community. It was another windy day. The houses on the Gulf side seem to be
primarily vacation rentals with cute ocean-related house names. The houses on the Bay side seem to be for the
permanent residents. The roads on that
side are packed sand, not paved, and many of the yards around the houses are lush with
green vegetation.
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| Our tricked out tow car |
The state park is shaped like a fishing hook, and the body of water in the center is called the East Slough. We took our kayaks to the park on our new roof rack kayak carriers, another modification to the little Fiesta.
Kayaking the East Slough on a calm day
The winds were calm when we shoved off. We drifted along the edge of the slough
looking at dunes that had been cordoned off as shorebird nesting areas, and at
wetland grasses. We watched two
Oystercatcher birds pecking along an oyster bar that had been exposed by the
low tide. They were so interesting to
watch, and they let us stay for about 15 minutes before they flew away.
Oystercatcher
It was so peaceful with the occasional fish jumping and sun
sparkling on the water. We paddled to
the end of the slough and headed back on the opposite shore. At this point the wind had come up, and we
were paddling against the wind and also the incoming tide. Up ahead we noticed a commotion in the water,
so we crossed back over the slough to get away from it. There was a lot of thrashing, splashing,
tails and fins as a large animal fed on the fish in shallow water. The predator and prey continued down the other
side of the slough quite a ways away from us as we paddled back to the boat
ramp. We were unsure the predator was a
shark or a dolphin, we couldn’t tell from a distance and the action was happening
quickly. We took a video that was zoomed
in. When we watched it later, we saw
that it was a bottlenose dolphin. So
dramatic.
Kayaking off of our beach in Apalachicola Bay
This was our second kayak paddle on the Forgotten
Coast. We had paddled the week before
from off of Carrabelle Beach. It was fun
to see the coastline from a different vantagepoint. Winds and currents eventually drove us back to
shore.
Red Flag day at the beach
On each of our visits to St. George Island, we spent some
time on the beach. The miles of beach
are covered with a fine white sand. There
are a lot of shells. Sadly, most times
we were there, the winds were so high that it was unsafe to swim - red flag days. Another reason to return!
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| Happy kayakers! |
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