Our first stop in Florida was Florida Caverns SP, which is a 1500-acre park bordering both banks of the Chipola River. We had tried to come here in 2016 but the caves had been flooded so you couldn’t tour them, so we went to a different SP. This time we were able to tour the caves. The campground was brand new as they had finished rebuilding it after Hurricane Michael in 2018 which destroyed 90% of the thick canopy forest and the campground. After we setup we did 5 km walk to see the Blue Hole Spring. The terrain is Karst Limestone so the ground water can find a path to the surface, the main spring was 97’ deep. After the spring we did another hiking trail nearby. That evening an ugly possum came by the campsite to check things out.

We had booked our cave tour in the afternoon of the next day, and it was on the opposite end of the park, so we did an 8 km walk (round trip) to the visitor centre and then did the cave tour. They had a museum display area, but the air conditioning was not working so it was extremely hot inside. The guide took us into the caves and showed us stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, flowstone, soda straws, columns and rimstone pools. There were 5 unique things about these caves as follows:

• They had setup coloured LED lights to enhance the view of the formations.
• They showed us bowls mounted in the ceiling to reflect light from the lanterns that the CCC workers used as they worked and explored the caves.
• We got to see both regular and blind crayfish that live in the cave.
• We got to see a Lemon Shark tooth that was stuck in the ceiling from the early days when the limestone was created by the higher sea levels.
• They had one column in the cave that they allowed you to touch/hug it. The rule was not to touch any other formations so your skin oils wouldn’t damage them.

Quite a unique cave tour.

We had one more day in Florida Caverns so the next day we decided to do a 16 km MTB ride. We started off on some of the Equestrian trails but they weren’t very well marked and they were too rugged from a surface perspective. We did see the remains of the Marianna National Fish Hatchery which was built in 1938. We tried another trail and it led to a dead end by the River Sink area we had hiked a few days before, however we did see a Coachwhip snake. From there we took the road to the far end of the park to have lunch at one of the picnic shelters and then visited the Tunnel Cave. The caves had been used by Native Americans for thousands of years as shelter from storms and to collect clay to make pottery. You could go through the Tunnel Cave and come out to a trail on the other side. On our way back to the campground we stopped to see the disappearing river where it flows underground. Just 3 days earlier the water underground had risen inside the caverns and the tour had to go through water up their knees in spots!

One of our favourite places to visit in the Florida Panhandle is St. George Island SP, one of Florida’s best examples of a gulf coast barrier island, covering 2023 acres with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Apalachicola Bay on the other. All the Florida state parks are difficult to book campsites in unless you want to plan 1 year in advance, which is not our travel style. We first got lucky and grabbed 2 nights at St. George Island due to a cancellation, then we were able to get 2 nights at St. Joseph Peninsula SP (which isn’t too far away), and then we got lucky again and got 4 nights back in St. George Island. This gave us 8 nights at beach locations. As we drove south to St. George Island we went through 2 really large forest areas, Apalachicola National Forest and Tate’s Hell State Forest. This was the first time on this trip where we actually witnessed a control burn underway. There were crews all along the route starting and monitoring burns. The Florida SP check out/in times are the latest of any from this trip with check out by 1 pm and then check in by 4 pm. This was further complicated as we were going from CST back to EST so we decided to stop in the town of St. George for lunch at Paddy’s Raw Bar. We sat outside with a view of the bridge that leads to St. George Island. They had signposts there and one showed 1277 miles to Owen Sound😉 For lunch we had Cheesy Jalapeno oysters to start (this area is famous for oysters) and I had an Oyster City Brewing Hooter Brown beer, which was the best craft beer I’ve had on this trip! For lunch Sharon had Spicy grilled shrimp and I had Mahi tacos. An excellent place for lunch with great service.

After we checked into the state park we went for a walk along the beach where we saw some massive jellyfish washed up on shore, as well as several sponges. The next day we did a 20 km MTB ride along the beach around the East end of the island and return. We saw Blue and Ghost Crabs, unfortunately a dead Manatee, and the Blue Herons waiting for the fishermen to catch something and leave them the scraps.

On our drive to St. Joseph Peninsula SP, we decided to stop in Apalachicola for lunch and we were very disappointed. We went upstairs at the Owl Café so we could have a view over the Bay, but the prices were far too high, $12 for small glass of wine, and they didn’t have any Oyster City Brewing beers on tap. We found out later that in an adjoining building they had the Owl Tap room, and we should have eaten there. We had a crab cake appetizer (which was good), Sharon had Shrimp tacos and I had Grouper fish and chips (which was way too big a portion, so I took half away for later). On top of this disappointment the service was pathetic. You don’t always find a winner restaurant. After lunch we got some groceries at Piggly Wiggly and then completed the drive to the state park. The sites at St. Joseph Peninsula SP were also brand new as it was also hit by Hurricane Michael in 2018 and in fact had just reopened in October of 2023. It was warm when we arrived, so we opened all our windows and vents, keeping them open when it started to rain. What we did not know was that the no-see-um bugs are so small that they all went through our screens to get out of the rain. Later that night when watching TV, we saw some flying around and turned on the lights only to find that we had more than 100 in the RV that we had to kill. Needless to say, we didn’t get them all and I sustained tons of bites. They seem to like me far more than Sharon, I guess because I’m on blood thinners. I counted and I had 66 bites on my arms and likely even more than that on my legs!!!

For our full day at St. Joseph, we did an 8 km hike covering the Bayview scenic trail and along the beach to hunt for shells. There were lots of flowers coming out along the trail, but you could also see the devastation from Hurricane Michael with all the dead slash pine trees. The slash pines normally have a roundish crown at the top and these were broken off by the hurricane. Hurricane Michael was the first category 5 storm to make landfall in the US since 1992 and had wind speeds that topped 160 mph (260 kph). On the beach walk we didn’t find too many keeper shells, but we did see lots of ghost crab holes. At the end of the beach walk we went back through the dunes and saw the old water tank system and saw all the new cabins they had built. We also saw some white-tailed deer cross the road in front of us. When we got back to the campground, we saw a huge thistle growing by the road.

The next day we returned to St. George Island and stopped at the Blue Parrot restaurant right on the beach for lunch. It was Sunday so they had live music, and he was playing lots of classic oldies we liked. We had a conch fritter appetizer and Sharon had a crab cake sandwich and I had the blackened mahi sandwich. Here we had great food, great entertainment, and great service😉

We had a different site when we returned to St. George Island SP and there were some no-see-ums there as well but not as bad as at St. Joseph Peninsula SP. Sharon went for a quick beach walk before dinner (I stayed inside to avoid the bugs) and saw lots of birds.

On our first full day back at St. George we did a 20 km MTB ride on Gap Point and Slough trails, then over to the youth camp area and returned against the wind along the beach. Along the trails we saw lots of flowers blooming and we learned about the Herty Cup used to collect resin from the pine trees. We biked on the sand trail to primitive campsite 2 and then to primitive campsite 1. The coolest, or maybe scariest thing we saw was an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake! It is one of the heaviest and most venomous snakes in the Americas. Luckily this guy wasn’t mad at us and eventually slithered away into the bush.

The following day was a complete washout as it rained all day. By the end of the day we had a 5” pool surrounding our RV! It was a good day to write blogs. Luckily all that rain soaked into the ground so by the following morning no pool was left.

For our last day at St. George Island, we decided to one more ride around the East end of the island along the beach. It was a nice sunny day, and we found a different type of jellyfish had come ashore that we hadn’t seen before. We also saw pelicans, larger sponges, a barrel sponge, a Horseshoe crab shell, large whelk shells, and even a white rubber boot. We also saw a half dozen dolphins swimming by but didn’t get a shot of them. For the return trip to the campground, we decided to follow the old road that had been closed for years. It did shorten our ride (we did 18.5 kms instead of 20) but it had several challenges. First off, the wind was coming straight at us from the west and the surfaces we road included, dirt, gravel, water, sand, and asphalt! Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got back to the campground so the beer tasted really good. However, the real treat was the bird visitors we had as we relaxed in our campsite. We don’t know if it was the colours of our bike gear, but we had a constant influx of a variety of birds checking us out😉

It took us three months to get this far south. Now it’s time to turn around and head home, we’ll pick up the pace and hopefully do the trip in 6 weeks!! As we left St. George to head to Alabama, we drove back through the Apalachicola Forest again and they were doing burns in different areas. Our next blog will cover our 2 stops in Alabama before going back through Georgia.