Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, Florida

Amelia Island is on the northeast border of Florida. Fort Clinch State Park sits on a point between the St Mary’s River and the ocean. On the way in to Fernandina Beach, we came upon a great idea for a side business now that we are retired. Too bad the good names are always taken.

Our Beach Guide

It’s a beautiful park and the restored fort was worth a second visit. We also enjoyed biking and walking on the beach. There is a half-mile long pier on the ocean side of the park that sort of parallels the shoreline. Unfortunately the pier was closed due to hurricane damage but we did have a greeter of sorts. We try not to annoy the wildlife but this little fellow was at our feet for nearly five minutes. We stood rather still and just let him do his thing.

Campsite Visitor

And to prove that the armadillos at Highlands Hammock were NOT an isolated incident, here’s evidence. This one was rustling around just behind out campsite. He’s totally oblivious to our existence yet he was at times no more than a foot or two from us, nose to the grindstone. Gotta find dinner, I guess.

We spent Christmas here and had a rather disappointing dinner downtown. On the good side, Bob had turkey and gravy, which almost made up for the chicken parm at Thanksgiving. We biked downtown to the farmers market and on a piece of the Egan’s creek greenway. The surface wasn’t particularly suited to road bike tires and we saw no birds in the creek, so we gave up after a short distance.

We had passed by the remains of an old building about a mile form our campground a number of times on our way into and out of the park. Curiosity won out this time and we discovered the oil house and foundation stones from one of the beacons that were once used to help ships get aligned to navigate safely into Cumberland Sound just north of the current park.