Florida Solo Road Trip - St George Island on the Forgotten Coast

本站添加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]This week, we're driving further down the forgotten coast to explore St. George Island.

[00:00:08]Come along with us as we check out the wild beaches, walk through ancient pine forests, experience a killer sunrise, and discover some very questionable fitness equipment.

[00:00:21]The trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to a bar on a beach. So, of course, I will bike many miles to make that happen.

[00:00:31]I'm at the state park on a trail um a trail that goes right out of the campground and they have this fit trail thing which I kind of remember this back seems like an 80s or '9s thing. Um I haven't seen in a while but I have to say all so far the things have been pretty lame. They're just like a They're just like literally a post and it says like calf stretch so you can like It's just funny.

[00:01:00]Okay, this was the exception. It was not easy at all and I blame my gym because they have no pull-up bars that are low enough for me to reach them.

[00:01:20]I obviously need some work on this important life skill. Oh well.

[00:01:33]Oh, guess I'm not that I'm not that fit.

[00:01:38]>> Balance meme. Not going to do it. I don't want to sprain my ankle. What do you think, Jet?

[00:01:45]I think just the walking on sand is making me pretty fit. So, let's see what's down the road.

[00:01:50]Okay, I think I'm going to I'm going to skip this one as I did it a few days ago when I filed my taxes.

[00:01:58]I think my heart rate went a little bit higher than the target. So, I think I'm good.

[00:02:07]Okay, that's the herie cup. Never seen that before. It's interesting.

[00:02:16]Oh my god, we're going this way.

[00:02:19]Wow, how pretty. This big wet land going out to I think it's called St. Joseph's Bay.

[00:02:30]Can't remember.

[00:02:36]Jet smell stuff. Stuff has been here.

[00:02:39]Lots of stuff. You can tell.

[00:02:42]And then sadly, you see a Gatorade jar down there.

[00:02:49]Uggh.

[00:02:52]Mostly though, y'all, this is so pristine. It's so pristine on this island.

[00:02:58]I have been here a few nights. Uh I It has been so relaxing and so beautiful.

[00:03:06]Uh it is just an amazing place um to be.

[00:03:11]Uh yesterday I rode my bike the 9 miles one way, eight or nine miles from the campground uh to this place called the Blue Parrot and that was really fun and I just met met people and ended up it was cool. It's one of the great things about traveling alone sometimes. You you meet people and get in long conversations with people and it was great. I had so much fun and and it wasn't that bad really the nine on an ebike on a regular bike. I don't know if I would have done it. Um you can really see how narrow this bay this island is. That's the Gulf right there.

[00:03:52]And this is the main road down the middle of the island. And that's the bay just right there.

[00:03:59]Not not wide here at all.

[00:04:10]Okay, this parking lot is super full and doesn't seem even that busy on the island right now, but I'm glad I biked cuz look, they have a bike rack right there. So, I'm going to go check out the tiki bar first as it should be.

[00:04:30]The Blue Parrot is a St. George Island Institution started as a hot dog stand in the 80s and it's the only restaurant on the island sitting right on the beach. The views were great riding the bike here from the state park and there's a bike trail the entire way which was very nice.

[00:04:45]It was a great place to spend the afternoon and totally worth the 9mm ride from the state park.

[00:04:54]Lots of fun people there and I had some great conversations.

[00:05:01]>> But other than that, I've just been doing a lot of walking on the beach, walking around the trails here, riding my bike around the park.

[00:05:40]Okay, my first impressions are this might be the most wild beach I've ever been on besides maybe in Hawaii.

[00:05:51]It's very unspoiled and very beautiful. The water is absolutely gorgeous. It's warm.

[00:05:59]Very few people.

[00:06:05]Gorgeous.

[00:06:12]In 1971, a developer bought 17 mi of beachfront here with plans to turn it into a fancy vacation destination.

[00:06:22]In 1973, they sold 1,800 acres on the east end to the state of Florida and used that money to fund the development on the rest of the island.

[00:06:35]So, the state park and the overdevelopment were literally part of the same deal here.

[00:06:52]it. The island is kind of what I've noticed is split into the state park and then obviously the part that's not the state park. And that area is crazy built up. I mean, layer upon layer of houses.

[00:07:06]It's very interesting. There's a lot of stuff for sale, too. I I do wonder uh how these people get insurance, if they even get insurance at all. But there are a ton of Airbnbs and and rental properties. There are currently over 380 Airbnbs on this island on a strip of land barely a mile wide.

[00:07:27]Almost every single one of them is an entire house, not a room.

[00:07:33]The same land deal that saved the state park in 1971 funded all of this. Sacred and Sold. Same island, same deal.

[00:07:45]I have never seen a bird try to take a dog's bone, but that bird flew over like it was going to take the bone away from the dogs. That's crazy.

[00:08:00]Jet's looking at it like, "Oh, no. Ain't going to happen." Bird.

[00:08:08]bird just landed on the vent.

[00:08:14]Now she's gonna be obsessed.

[00:08:20]The bird has been spotted.

[00:08:34]It's a whole other world here, y'all.

[00:08:37]I would walk down this road and feel like I was the only one on the entire island.

[00:08:57]That's jets safety position when fighter jets go over.

[00:09:03]Here comes another That one's pretty low.

[00:09:14]Okay, let's see how this one is.

[00:09:38]One thing here, it's so amazing. It's just so quiet.

[00:09:47]Really quiet. I mean, you just hear nature.

[00:09:52]It's absolutely gorgeous.

[00:09:58]It's definitely the way barrier islands used to be in Florida.

[00:10:06]Quite a contrast.

[00:10:21]Heat. Heat.

[00:10:55]He's got a date with some fisherman down the way.

[00:11:00]They're so smart.

[00:11:28]Hey y'all.

[00:11:29]Uh, I just wanted to say a little bit before I leave this beautiful place, uh, at St. George Island. If you want to come here, you can. I The State Park campground is phenomenal. The sightes are beautiful. It gets so quiet at night. You can see all the stars. I mean, it's just one of those spots that's rare for me that I ever go to.

[00:11:52]And um the other part is if you wanted to do a vacation rental, and a lot of them will have like their own little pool right there. It's pretty cool. Um but that I think would be a very different experience. Although still at night, I'm sure it's quiet and dark and you can see all the stars. So, we just had a wonderful stay. I'm about to pack up and leave here and I'm going to head to Tallahassee from here and spend a night in Harvest Host uh called uh the Tallahassee Automobile Museum and I've stayed there I stayed there a year ago and uh it's just a place to hang for the night so I don't have such a long drive and then uh we will be heading to Blue Springs State Park kind of making our way back towards home slowly but surely um for a little break um which I'm excited about that too. So, this has really been an amazing 2 months trip so far. Every place I've stayed, I've really liked, which hasn't always happened. So, we got to get packing up and headed out. Uh, I hope you join us for uh the Blue Springs uh experience.

[00:12:56]I've never been there either, so it should be interesting.

[00:13:21]Wow.

[00:13:24]It's a Saturday.

[00:13:26]It's 1:00.

[00:13:29]Glad I'm not going in. Look at this line.

[00:13:33]It's crazy.

[00:13:40]So, I guess this is a big plus for staying at the campground or possibly getting there super early.

[00:13:47]This dumbass is going over the line, too. It's like, dude, not even paying attention.