Gulf Islands National Seashore

Players:  Jenny, Zach & Jackson
Date of Visit:  January 2012
Website:  www.nps.gov/guis

Location:  Florida & Mississippi (although we just went to the Florida portion)
Entrance Fee:  $8/car, good for 7 days
Type of trip:  Day trip

Park Passport Stamps Available:  11

Recently, we headed over to Pensacola to attend a wedding of a high school friend.  Although it's still in Florida (our home state), it's more than 300 miles from our home -- so we decided to make a weekend of it, and check out Gulf Islands National Seashore while we were visiting the area.  

Gulf Islands National Seashore is the largest national seashore in the park system (who knew?) and protects parts of the natural barrier islands that form along the gulf coast of Florida and Mississippi. Unlike some National Parks, Gulf Islands has several distinct areas on many different islands.  We visited the Fort Pickens, on the west end of Santa Rosa Island, as well as Fort Barrancas, which is in the Naval Air Station on the mainland part of Florida.  We also drove through the Santa Rosa and Okaloosa areas, to the east of Pensacola Beach.  The main visitor center, which we skipped on this trip, is located in the Naval Live Oaks area -- this area sounded intriguing, as it was one of the first federal tree areas in the United States, but unfortunately we ran out of time to visit. 

We began our visit with a trip to Fort Pickens.  The barrier islands of Florida were important from a defensive standpoint, as they block the entrance to Pensacola Bay.  A trio of forts (Pickens, McRee and Barrancas) provided triangulated protection for this important shipping hub.  During the Civil War, Ft. Pickens was defended by Union troops (and was one of only four forts in the south not to be captured by the Confederacy), while Confederate troops captured Ft. Barrancas over on the mainland.  A battle broke out between the two forts in November 1861 which resulted in over 5000 shots/shells being fired into the forts, and ultimately led to the Confederacy withdrawing from Pensacola Bay.

Jackson by one of the cannon in Ft. Pickens

Timucuan Ecological & Historical Preserve

Players:  Jenny, Zach & Jackson

Date of Visit:  January 2011

Website:  www.nps.gov/timu
Location:  Florida
Entrance Fee:  Free (unless you decide to enter the beach/visitor areas of the Talbot Islands State Parks)
Type of Trip:  Daytrip from home
Park Passport Stamps Available:  4

Trip Report:  Timucuan Ecological & Historical Preserve is a small NPS unit in/near Jacksonville, Florida -- I did not even know it existed until I was on the Park Service website doing a search on all the NPS units in the state of Florida.  It is made up of several small areas in the Jacksonville area, all of which have some historical or ecological significance and provides a glimpse of Florida's past.  The main visitor center is at the Ft. Caroline section of the park; the other areas you can visit are the Theodore Roosevelt Area, the Ribault Club on Ft. George Island, the Talbot Islands State Parks, and Kingsley Plantation.  There are no camping or food options within the National Park area, making this a great one-day trip.  There are, however, picnic areas available as well as camping in the state parks on the Talbot Islands.  In addition, you have to drive from section to section of this park, so there are plenty of opportunities to grab something to eat if you didn't bring your picnic basket.  Dogs are allowed throughout all of the park units, as long as they remain outdoors and on a leash.  If you visit, I highly recommend picking up (or downloading here) a copy of the "If You Have One Day" brochure, which outlines the best way to visit all of the sections of this park in one day.

Jackson & Zach taking a break near Ft. Caroline

Everglades National Park

Players:  Jenny, Jake & Jackson
Date of Visit:  March 2010
Website:  www.nps.gov/ever
Location:  Florida
Entrance Fee:  $10 per car, good for 7 days
Type of Trip:  Overnight camping trip
Park Passport Stamps Available:  5
Trip Report:  I had lived in Florida for a total of four years before I ever made it to South Florida, and the two things that I wanted to visit the most were the Florida Keys and the Everglades.  The Everglades is a truly unique environment, encompassing hundreds of square miles of very slow moving water as well as hundreds of species of birds, fish, alligators and even crocodiles.  Before we visited, I had a very clear picture in my head of what I would see in the Everglades:  miles of sawgrass, the ocean, and some birds.  I was sort of shocked to discover that there were campgrounds in the Everglades (how do you camp in a marsh?)  I did see all those things, but we discovered a whole lot more in the park as well.  I was pleasantly surprised by Everglades National Park, and would like to return someday soon to spend more time in the area.

The Everglades

Castillo de San Marcos & Ft. Matanzas

When I first decided that we would try our hardest to get to all the National Parks units in the United States, of course the first ones we would visit would be the ones closest to home.  St. Augustine, Florida is only about 75 miles from where we live; I had been to the Castillo de San Marcos several times, but had never even heard about Ft. Matanzas until I started looking for National Parks units to visit!  I am quite glad that we found this little gem.

Castillo de San Marcos
Players:  Jenny & Jackson 
Date of Visit:  February 2010
Website:  www.nps.gov/casa
Location:  Florida
Entrance Fee:  $6 per person for adults ages 16 & up; kids free
Type of Trip:  Daytrip from home
Park Passport Stamps Available:  1
Trip Report:  Castillo de San Marcos is one of the truly old structures still existing in the United States today.  It is a fort begun by the Spanish in 1672; it is the only 17th century fort still standing in the US.  The fort is built from coquina, a limestone including phosphate most often in the form of shells.  It was the only material available to the Spanish; the Castillo is one of only two buildings in the world made of coquina (the other is Ft. Matanzas, 14 miles south).

Entrance Sign for Castillo de San Marcos