Primitive Camping on St George Island State Park

The Panhandle of Florida has a lot of great beaches and cute towns tucked away along the coast. But you might not know that there’s a Forgotten Coast of Florida because, well…it’s forgotten about. Located in the middle of the Forgotten Coast is a long island called St. George Island. It’s a quiet spot with colorful vacation homes, a lighthouse and a state park at the end. The state park is a protected beach area and allows you to go camping on St George Island.

If you’re taking a road trip towards the panhandle, you’ll likely end up going more towards the west end of Florida where you’ll find Destin and Panama City. The panhandle beaches are known for their white sand and turquoise water. They’re also built up more for tourism.

The Forgotten part of Florida starts at St. Marks, or the ‘armpit’ of Florida (according to my cousin), which is just south of Tallahassee, and goes to Mexico Beach. Once you pass Mexico Beach, you reach the tourism hotspots of Panama City, Destin and Pensacola.

I don’t think I had ever really explored the panhandle before I moved to Tallahassee. My husband got a job in Tallahassee and we were excited to be back in the sunshine state. Little did we know, we weren’t really near any beaches and Tallahassee looks a little more like Georgia than Florida.

On our first trip to the beach, we headed directly south and ended up at Alligator Point. It’s a somewhat wide beach, but not the prettiest. After asking around, we were told by multiple people that St. George Island was the ‘closest prettiest beach’.

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About St. George Island

St. George Island is located just off the Forgotten Coast across from Apalachicola. Apalachicola is a small, historic town that is known for its oysters and played a huge role in the Florida oyster and sponge industries. It’s a cute place to stop at on your way (though this picture doesn’t really do it justice). We typically stop in this town to show people or walk around. It’s a quick stop.

Once you cross the bridge, you’ll be right in the heart of the island. It’s a 28-mile long island with little to do besides relax and chill. A lot of the island consists of vacation homes but you won’t see any high rises or chain restaurants here. Evidently there are strict building codes and zoning laws, which keep it unspoiled in a sense.

You can climb the Cape St. George lighthouse, check out the handful of restaurants in the area, or of course, hit the beach. If you explore the island further, you’ll run into the state park at the end. This is where you can do some camping on St George Island.

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St. George Island State Park

Most of the state park is a protected beach area. It’s a $6 fee to get into the park (per car) and is just a good place to hit the beach or do some water sports. You can go fishing, kayaking/canoeing or do a little bit of hiking. There’s 9 miles of protected beach. 4 miles are accessible to everyone near the entrance and the other 5 miles are by permit only.

There’s an ocean and a bay side to the state park so depending on what you come there for, you’ll get a different kind of scenery. The beach side is fairly white sand and the bay side is where you’ll see the marshes and wildlife.

Pets are allowed in the camping and primitive areas, and also on the nature trails, so we brought our fur baby along.

Camping on St George Island

If you want to stay on the island, but don’t want to splurge for a rental property, you can camp in the state park. The main campground has 60 spots with electricity and water hookups, bathrooms and a playground.

Before you get your hopes up, the main campground is not on the beach and doesn’t have beach views. Instead it’s tucked away in the forest part and the beach is a short walk away.

However, if you do want to camp nearer to the water and don’t mind nixing the facilities, there are TWO primitive camp spots located at the end of a little peninsula along the Gap Point trail. Each spot has a limit of 12 people.

To camp in the primitive area, you’ll need to reserve a spot ahead of time and check in at that entrance to tell them.

How to access the primitive camping

This is the ‘fun’ part, because there are only two ways to get there. If you plan ahead and/or have the equipment, you can kayak or canoe to the area. If you don’t, you’ll need to hike there. With your gear. This all would have been fine if we hadn’t underestimated the length of the hike and had known that the trail was a mixture of dirt and sand (emphasis on the sand part).

Gap Point Trail starts at the camp playground and there’s a little parking lot there where you can leave your car. The trail to the end is about 2.5 miles long. If you’re hiking it for fun, it’s a 5 mile round trip hike.

We looked up the trail beforehand and thought we could bring our beach wagon to bring our gear and just pull the beach wagon along the trail, as opposed to having to carry it all. Once we decided to bring the wagon, we decided to bring along every other camping (un)necessity we could think of. So by the time we were ready to start, we had a cooler full of drinks and food, a storage container with our stove and supplies, tent, chairs, camera stuff, overnight bag, DOG, and dog supplies.

I don’t know when we started packing like a family of 5.

We loaded our wagon up high and started along the trail. It’s a flat trail (which was why we thought we’d be safe with the wagon), but what we didn’t anticipate was that it turns to sand at some point. And not just like some sand on a hard, dirt path. It’s the sand where it’s nearly impossible to pull something with wheels through. And our skinny, wagon wheels did not stand a chance.

After about 20 minutes of walking, our wagon started to get stuck. One of us pulled from the front and the other pushed from behind. (I’m aware that we looked like we’ve never camped a night in our life. Don’t judge us. We normally do a much better job at efficiency.)

5 minutes BEFORE that, our dog decided that he wasn’t having it and that he would not be coming along on our adventure. If you’ve seen the videos of the dogs who are just done with their walks, you know what we were dealing with. We then had a wagon that wouldn’t roll through the sand and a dog that wasn’t going to walk.

And to make matters more fun, it started pouring down rain out of no where. You know, those fun little sun showers where it’s a blue sky everywhere but then one cloud comes in that rains wrath upon you.

But, we were committed.

It was painful and hard and not the smartest way to go about it (I’m well aware), but we made it. If you don’t bring a beach wagon, I’m sure the hike would be a lot easier and shorter.

The primitive camping spots

The two primitive spots are right along the water. They have designated fire pits and some wooden benches around the pits. They also had a picnic table for the site (if I remember correctly). But that’s it. No bathrooms or anything else–this is primitive camping after all.

When we went, the spots were overgrown with tall grass. All I could think of were how many snakes could be living in there (cue my fear of snakes). It also wasn’t the most ideal to try and set a tent on top of, but we found a sandy little area just past the grass and were able to set up there.

We quickly learned that the sandy area (and probably the whole area) had small cacti that you didn’t really notice until you stepped on them. And they happened to be some kind of special cacti that burn when you do step on them. At one point, all 3 of us (yes, the dog too unfortunately 😢) ended up stepping on a cactus and were hopping around in pain.

It wasn’t the best start and we were starting to regret our primitive camping idea.

Once we got set up and found a cacti-free area to put our chairs, we were a bit happier. The camping spots are right on the water so it’s easy to take a swim and cool off, which we badly needed.

The great part about these spots is that the sun sets right over the water and I kid you not, a pair of dolphins swam right near the shore while the sun was setting. It was perfectly timed.

Getting to camp near the water and watch the sunset was definitely worth the pain of getting there.

Gap Point Trail

One thing to take note of though, is that they are right off the trail. And bright and early in the morning, we did see two hikers that were exploring. Just an FYI in case you’re changing in the wilderness or something…people do come back there.

We didn’t stick around for too long the next day and the way back was just as hard. The trail is pretty to take and would be a nice easy walk if you were just planning on hiking it. If you do decide to go primitive camping on St George Island, probably don’t bring anything with wheels. (I feel like that’s an obvious statement but you live and learn.)

Would we go back?

I think so. We have never really done any camping that requires much hiking to it, so we underestimated a lot. If we were to do it again, I would opt for a small, shoulder cooler with some pre-made sandwiches for meals. I wouldn’t take anything that I couldn’t carry on my back and would probably not bring the dog. (If your dog is good with walking long distances, great. Ours is a little lazy and has a small battery.)

Actually, I take that back. If we were to do it again, I’d get a canoe and paddle over so I don’t have to carry anything. HA!

The area is beautiful and it’s a nice spot to be secluded in nature. There was no one at the other spot so we were out there alone just watching the sun set over the water. Camping on St George Island was definitely worth doing after all.

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