Emerald Coast a Gem

Beach at Topsail

Path to the Beach

Little late with this post but after leaving New Orleans we decided to head straight to Florida and skip the Mobile area. Whew! Finally made it to Florida and the Emerald Coast!  I was looking forward to the  famous beaches of the Sunshine State. This time we opted for one of the Florida State Parks along the coast in this area.  We picked Topsail Hill which is between Destin and Panama City.  The park is now one of my favorites!  It has large well spaced full hookups sites with privacy from your neighbor. The park is right on the Gulf with plenty of the white sand beaches famous in this area.  The beach also has restricted access.  You either have to walk, bike or take the free trolley shuttle to the beach area.   There is also a nice bike trail that runs along the highway 30A  to the nearby little beach towns.  I had good time riding my bike and walking the park trails and enjoying the beach even if it was still a little too cold to swim. There are plenty of restaurants in the area and shopping in Destin if so inclined as well.   We tried to extend our stay but the park filled up and we had to move on.  I highly recommend reservations for this state park; it fills up on weekends even this time of the year. 

Cedar Key

Jack and I had stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Cedar Key a few years ago and decided to revisit this area.  Old Victorian houses and funky little beach hotels.  No big hotels or restaurant chains here just world famous clam chowder with lots of old Florida charm.   There are a few RV parks around the area.  The ones in town are close quarters and we stayed just outside of town.  We could not get into the newer Cedar Key RV Resort and stayed across the street at Angler which could use some sprucing up.  We enjoyed exploring the area and the sunsets on the pier.   Come see for yourself!

We thought we might need some under warranty repairs on the Biff and made an appointment at the Excel dealership near Ocala.  We stayed at Spring RV Resort which is an older well kept park catering to snowbirds. Silver Springs and Juniper Springs are nearby and both worth visiting.  We had few bad days of weather and waited till the sun came out to visit Silver Springs and the historic glass bottom boats rides.  The Florida State Parks recently took over this iconic private park and were busy repairing, restoring and turning it to more of  a nature reserve instead of a tourist trap.  Glad they are preserving this piece of Florida’s past.   The springs are amazing and hard to explain how clear the water actually is until you see if for yourself.   Pictures do not do them justice.  Juniper Springs has boat run where you can canoe or kayak with a shuttle pickup provided by the park.  Next time we come this way we plan on doing that. 

Silver Springs

Turns out we did not need the repairs. We hitched up and headed to Titusville to our home away from home at TGO.  We have not seen our resident gator from last year but it looks like there are three baby gators instead - maybe mama moved to bigger waters?   This will be my last post for a bit since we plan on staying put for awhile. Happy trails everyone!