Month: November 2024

Our original plans were to spend about three weeks in northern Florida, at Gamble Rogers State Park (our favorite) in Flagler Beach and Fort Clinch State Park (tied as our 2nd favorite) in Fernandina Beach. We were able to extend our stay in the area. This post covers our first 3 campsites there – 10 days at Gamble, 4 days at Fort Clinch, then 11 more days at Gamble.

At Gamble Rogers State Park there are two campgrounds. The campground on the river side of the park has very large, well-spaced, flat campsites with gravel pads, surrounded by grass. We prefer the oceanside campground, where you can hear the surf 24/7. Half of the sites there are on the ocean, most with ocean views. We are willing to deal with the dirt/sand campsites and huge puddles after rain as  trade-offs.

As I have mentioned in past posts, the idea of our very first Florida camping trip started with a youtube drone video of Gamble Rogers. That video and plans for the first trip helped us to survive the early months of the pandemic. The trip itself got us through the later months of the pandemic, when much of Michigan was under restrictions.

We really love Flagler Beach. It is a small, laid-back oceanside surf town. The bars, restaurants, galleries and shops are casual and not really expensive. With only a handful of small motels and inns, there are mainly locals, day-trippers,  and VRBO renters. That may change, as a new 100-room Margaritaville Hotel is going up in the center of town. Also, a huge increase in insurance costs and taxes, caused by recent hurricanes, is forcing many homeowners to sell.

Our shared mindset is to thoroughly enjoy every cool place we visit, while it is still cool. We appreciate that we have experienced many great places before they were forever changed (even ruined) by the internet, wealthy people taking over, fires, etc. Just a few examples are Aspen (now we call it “Beverly Hills East”), Lahaina (destroyed by fire), Key West (much more crowded with a parking lot in Mallory Square), Telluride (still cool but completely owned by the wealthy), Breckenridge (over-built), and Gatlinburg (has become a crowded tourist trap).

Fort Clinch State Park also has two campgrounds.  One is located on the St. Amelia River. Our rig does not fit in any sites there. Also, we heard it is a more noisy, party-oriented area with lots of bugs. We love the Atlantic beach campground, which is a short walk to the ocean. We toured the fort, the last two years, so skipped it this year.

We also really like the town of Fernandina Beach. It is a very cool historic town with several smaller hotels, but no huge resorts. The town reminds us of Holland, MI or a much smaller version of the Traverse City of 15 or 20 years ago.  The town has many places with live music and some great microbreweries. One of our favorite places is The Salty Pelican Bar and Grill, which has a roof top area with views of the Amelia River. A highlight of our stay there was meeting up with a couple we met in the keys. Stick and CJ are living full time and working remotely on an old trawler. They just happened to be in Fernandina Beach when we were. We found them in the marina, got a tour of their beautiful boat and had a fun time swapping stories.

My next post will cover our last 13 days in northern Florida.