Port St. Joe State Park
Many people claim areas as best kept secrets; however, Port St. Joe State Park is the gem of the best kept secrets. The city of Port St. Joe is two hours east of Destin and two hours west of Tallahassee. The city is a small beach town without the large condos and heavy tourism, leaving it with an abundance of natural beauty.
Port St. Joe State Park is the epitome of spring camping beach trip locations. Port St. Joe is a peninsula with primitive and traditional campsites and cabins for all ranges of camping adventures. The primitive campsite area is spread out through the peninsula and is separated into 6-8 fire ring locations. This allows for great space between campers and really gives you a deserted island “feel”. The furthest campsite is several miles out and a back hike.
You want to make reservations in advanced or arrive at the park early to get a camping location. Due to the limited number of primitive campsites – the park fills up at a rapid pace.
The park is beautiful with white beaches with huge sand dunes. The sand dunes are approximately 40 feet high and with steep vertical walls of sand.
What activities are there to do?
- Hike the peninsula – The peninsula is 7 miles long and has three different hiking trails. The trails are white sandy single-track. This hike is moderately difficult due to the deep sand.
- Canoeing the front or back bay – on our trip we brought a canoe and it was absolutely awesome to paddle around the back bay. We paddled out to sand dunes and had a sand “bar” party on it.
- Explore the massive dunes – there are huge sand dunes on the beach completely awesome for exploring. Do pay attentions to the signs regarding sustaining nature and not destroying habitats. We are in their habitat so keep that in mind.
- Fish – plenty of fishing on and off the state park property.
- Sea Kayaking – similar to canoeing. This place has tons of places to kayak, one awesome workout would be navigating around the peninsula.
- Swim – the back bay has tons of sea weed and aquatic vegetation so the front bay is where you want to hit a swim. Be careful on the sea urchins – we saw tons while canoeing.
- Skim boarding – perfectly smooth flat beaches make this place a perfect spot to session flat ground skim boarding.
Reminders
Animals – rattlesnakes, copperheads, spiders, sea urchins, jelly fish are just a few animals to keep an eye out while exploring the beautiful white sandy beaches. This habitat is their so be mindful when you explore this beach. You shouldn’t have an issue with wildlife when you are out on the beach; however, it’s always important to understand what lives where you explore.
Preserve the beauty – This is one of the last pure beaches in Florida not destroyed by tourist and loitering so treat it with respect. Keep an eye on your trash and bag up whatever you bring in.
Comment your requests of places we should visit!
Thanks,
The Southern Summit Crew
IG: SouthernSummitCo
Southern Summit Collection 