From Pine Mountain to Destin was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. Keli took over driving some of the way through Alabama, which was great for me and my stupid sinuses. We were mostly on a four lane divided highway and traffic was practically nonexistent…a recurring theme for much of our driving and not something I expected.
As I mentioned in the previous post, we had no reservations anywhere so everything about this trip was a crap shoot. Anyway, we discovered Henderson Beach State Park on the coast in Destin a few months prior when we were researching this ridiculous idea and we knew it was very, very popular. This is one of those places that apparently gets booked up months in advance so we knew the odds were not in our favor. But, Keli called anyway while we were en route just to see if they had any availability. The nice lady on the phone said they had one (ONE!) site that might (MIGHT!) be available if the people who were presently occupying it decided not to stay for another night. The current occupants had until 1:00 pm to let them know if they were going to stay. We could not call back after 1:00 to reserve it. It was simply first-come, first-served. We rolled in at 1:45 and lo and behold: it was available for one night! WOOHOO!!!
Our first night in Florida and we lucked out with not only a HIGHLY desirable camping spot but THE VERY BEST SITE IN THE PARK!!! And just look at the photo above. Have you ever been to a beach in Florida and seen such an utter lack of humans? I haven’t. And look at the sky…perfect! It was mid 70’s with a slight breeze and moderate humidity. In other words, freakin’ perfect! If the campsites are all full and the beach is empty…where the heck is everyone? Shopping? Don’t care. They aren’t here.
The state park covers a pretty good area from the beach all the way to Hwy 98 I think. Our site was #17. Write that down. It is right by the walkway to the beach and the bathhouse. Every site we saw felt very private with lots of natural foliage around them. The walkway to the beach is probably 1/4 mile and one of the best walks to the beach you’ll find anywhere. I’ll say this quite a lot but we will definitely be back to this place.
