🏖️ Beaches

Fort Clinch State Park

Fernandina Beach, FL · Northeast Florida

About

A red-brick Civil War fort sits at the northern tip of Amelia Island, its ramparts looking out over the channel where the Amelia River meets Cumberland Sound. Walk the granite sallyport into the courtyard on the first weekend of any month and costumed soldiers are drilling, cooking, and standing watch as if it were 1864. Past the walls, a long oak-shaded loop runs out to wide Atlantic beach where the hard sand gives up shark teeth and the fishing pier draws regulars at dawn.

Highlights

1864 garrison reenactments the first full weekend of each monthWell-preserved 19th-century brick fort and rampartsAtlantic beach with shark-tooth hunting and shellingHalf-mile fishing pier at the river mouthOak-canopy loop trail and Willow Pond nature trail

Related places

Anastasia State Park Beaches

Anastasia State Park

St. Augustine, FL · Northeast Florida

Four miles of wide Atlantic beach back up against ancient dunes and the calm, kayak-friendly water of Salt Run, a short bridge from the oldest city in the country. Walk the maritime hammock trails to the Old Spanish Coquina Quarry, where workers cut the shellstone that built the Castillo de San Marcos in the 1670s. Surfers, windsurfers, and shorebirds share the sand, and the campground tucked under the live oaks puts you a few minutes from downtown St. Augustine.

Little Talbot Island State Park Beaches

Little Talbot Island State Park

Jacksonville, FL · Northeast Florida

One of the last undeveloped barrier islands in Northeast Florida, Little Talbot puts five miles of open Atlantic sand between you and the nearest building. Sea oats hold the dune line and the Dune Ridge Trail loops back through maritime forest and salt marsh, where river otters, marsh rabbits, and migrating shorebirds outnumber the people. Come for a low-tide walk where the only tracks in the sand might be your own, and surfers and kayakers have the place largely to themselves.

Big Talbot Island State Park Beaches

Big Talbot Island State Park

Jacksonville, FL · Northeast Florida

One of the last undeveloped barrier islands left in Florida, Big Talbot trades resort towers and boardwalks for raw shoreline. Follow the Black Rock Trail through coastal hammock and you arrive at Boneyard Beach, where salt-bleached skeletons of live oak and cedar lie toppled across the sand below an eroding bluff, the dark hardpan rock shelving into Nassau Sound. Come at low tide with a camera and patience, and you may have a mile of empty Atlantic coast to yourself.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Fort Clinch State Park.