Hello everyone!

I'm making a road trip to Florida in a few weeks and am seeking any thoughts or advice from some of you that know the area.

This will be a lighthousing trip. I plan to start at St. Simonds, Ga. and travel down to Ponce de Leon, with a stop at St. Augustine in the middle. I also plan to do quick "drive-by photo shoots" of St. Johns River and Amelia Island if time allows, but I've heard those lights are difficult to get close too.

I'm also planning to head over to the west side amd hit St. Marks, Crooked River, Cape San Blas, St. George and Pensacola.

Are there any words of wisdom anyone has for me? Traffic areas to avoid, things to watch out for, highlights to make sure I catch, etc. Since I have never been to Florida, any thoughts will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

Billy

Amelia isn't difficult to get close to - it is a little bit hard to get a good picture of as if you are next to it, it is obscured by trees. You can get a good picture from the Fort Clinch State Park.

I think I'd include Jupiter in there

Thanks grandmaR. Is the view of Amelia from Fort Clinch still obscured by trees or is there a clearing in which more than the top of the light can be seen?

Yes, I would love to go to Jupiter. If I can find a way to stretch the trip into an extra day, I'm going to go down there. I might have to save Jupiter for a southern Florida trip here in another year or two. I hate it that I have to find a stopping point. I would also love to go farther north to Tybee Island, too.

Maybe I can squeeze it in, though. I know it would be worth it.

These are from Fort Clinch State Park



This is from the road next to the lighthouse



St. Simons to Fernandina (Amelia) is less than 2 hours. Unless you go on a day when they have lighthouse tours, looking at the lighthouse won't take too long although if you go out to Fort Clinch it will be a little longer.

Fernandina to St. Augustine is about a hour and a half. Touring the lighthouse will take some time

St. A to Ponce is another hour and a half.

Now if you want to go next to St. Marks, that is a five drive all the way back across the penninsula.

If instead you went to Jupiter that would be 3+ hours from Ponce, and from there you could visit Sanibel Island, and Gasparilla Island and save the panhandle of FL for another time. And maybe that way you could start at Tybee instead of starting at St. Simons.

You might want to consider adding anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to your travel times between lights. This is the summer months, schools out, visitors are all around and the beach areas are busy with traffic.

Billy, on what date do you plan to be in Pensacola? The Lighthouse is open for public tours on Saturdays from 12 noon till 4 pm. And on most Wednesdays from 9:45 till noon. There are also special tours on Wednesday mornings at 8:15 am to watch the Blue Angels practice, from the top of the tower. The Blue Angel Tours are limited to 10 people. And of course the grounds are always open, you just have to stop at the NAS Guard Shack and tell them that you are going to see the Lighthouse and they will give you a pass that is good for the Lighthouse and the Navel Air Museum.

Check out there website: http://www.pensacolalighthouse.org be sure to click on Tours for addmission information.

If you will let me know when you plan to be there, maybe I can meet you there and we will do lunch/dinner!

Thanks for all the advice. It's very appreciated.

As far as touring St. Simons, St. Augustine and Ponce de Leon, how much time do ya'll think should be set aside to tour those lights on an individual light basis?

This might be too ambitious, but I was thinking I might arrive at St. Simons before it opens to take pictures and take the tour and visit the gift shop as soon as it opens at 10 a.m.

From there, head down to St. Augustine (If time allows I could do "drive-by" photos at Amelia and St. Johns River on the way) or I could skip those altogether if I am behind schedule or if traffic is madness.

I should be able to be at Augustine around 2 or 3 p.m. and spend a few hours there. Then on to Ponce (which, according to the Website is open until 9, with the last tour at 8 - I will call to verify). If I get there by 7 p.m. I would have two hours. Also, sunset is 8:21 p.m., so I should get some decent sunset lighting.

Obviously, a key to getting this in is that Ponce is apparently open until 9 p.m. ... But is two hours at these lights enough time to enjoy them?

Is this possible? Or will summer traffic put a major kink in the plans. This is on a Friday, so it's a workday, but I realize the beaches will still be packed. Any thoughts if this is even possible?

Stephanie - I don't have the itinerary totally mapped out yet, but I will be passing through Pensacola late Thursday (if after sunset, I might try and get some night shots) and then on the way home Saturday. However, since I'm wanting to go down to St. Marks in the morning (I've heard so much about the photo opportunities at St. Marks, I don't want to miss it), I don't think I will be coming back through Pensacola until 5 or 6, which is early enough to grab daylight photos, but too late for the tour.

I'm also looking at Pensacola as a light I could visit in the future on an overnight trip, so if I miss the tour this time, I can always come back

I will let you know how the itinerary looks once I get it figured out. It would be nice to meet up with a fellow lighthouse friend, even if it's only for a quick bite to eat. I will let you know.

Once again, thanks to everyone for the information!

Oh Stephanie, sorry, I didn't mention actual dates in my last posts. I'm thinking Thursday July 30 and Saturday August 1.

This depends a lot on your touring style. My husband walks to each sign and reads it, and then goes to the next sign. He takes very few pictures.

I walk to each sign and take a picture and rapidly walk on. I take lots of pictures.

Neither of us are inclined to climb the lighthouses because of arthritis in our knees.

This is what I wrote about St. Simon's Lighthouse



After we crossed bridge to St. Simon's Island, our first visit was to the lighthouse. Because it looked like rain, we took the pictures outside first. Bob concentrated on the signs, and I took some photos of the inlet.

After we finished taking pictures outside, we went into the museum.



Downstairs were various exhibits and the museum shop.

This sign (titled "What is Happening Here?") says:



In a historic building only a few yards from the ocean, moisture is certain to have a serious effect. Moisture affects the interior walls by entering the building through tiny cracks and pores in the stonework. It can also enter the building through rising moisture in the crawl space and through small openings around the window casings. You can see the effects of moisture in the Keeper's Dwelling. Here, blistering paint on the plaster is caused by moisture laden air passing through the brick and mortar. ...

On the wall below the sign you can see signs of deteriorating plaster.

We saw something similar in Aruba where the colonists used salt water to build the walls and the salt leeching out of the masonry caused the paint to bubble and disintegrate - they have to repaint every couple of years.

Upstairs, they had rooms set up to depict life for the lighthouse keepers.



After we left the museum, we went to see the Maritime Museum (although we didn't go in) and then went out to Fort Frederica.

For St. Augustine, we merely went in to the shop and saw the film they had, but since we didn't intend to climb the lighthouse, we thought the entrance fee was way too expensive. Admission to the Museum and Tower is $7.50 for adults, $6.50 for Seniors and $5.00 for Children ages 5-11.

We had already seen the extensive exhibit at Ponce Lighthouse on the Fresnel lenses, so I wasn't really gung ho on paying the admission just to the Museum of $5 for adults, $4 for Seniors and $3 for Children ages 5-11., so we did not go in and merely took photos from the outside. We spent less than forty-five minutes here.

We got to Ponce late on a day in January and it was raining a little bit.



Admission to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is $5 for adults (no reduction for seniors or for those who don't want to climb the lighthouse), $1.50 for children 11 and under. There is a $1 charge to stamp a National Parks passport. I did think this was expensive, but worth it.

It is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m in the winter, and can be climbed for an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. We spent about a hour and a half here without climbing the lighthouse. I was too tired to climb it to see the wonderful view which I'm sure there would be from the top. Also it was raining, and I was a little afraid that if there was lightening, we'd be evacuated from the lighthouse.

There were 10 buildings in the museum - one of them had an exhibit on fresnel lenses (the largest in the world),



and in that building was a panoramic view of Ponce Inlet. I wanted to climb up a couple of stories to see the inlet, but I didn't have the energy. The lighthouse is the tallest one in FL and is 175 feet tall.



There was also a 20 minute video on the life of the lighthouse keeper. When we went in, there was a huge cat lying on one of the benches. He appeared later in the video.

It was still raining a little, so I took some film pictures in addition to the digital ones that I took inside out of the rain.

Thanks so much for more information Rosalie. I will climb the towers, but my big thing is taking pictures. I will look at everything, but it usually doesn't take me too terribly long to do that. My big thing is taking pictures.

I will take your advice and make sure I leave plenty of time for Ponce, with Augustine right behind. I will skip other lights if need be, but I will make sure to have plenty of time for those.

If you have time to have lunch at St Simons, head over to 'Barbara Jeans' for some really great crab cakes, just down the street about a block from the light. At least it was there when I visited St Simons 3 - 4 years ago.

I would allow more time at Ponce Inlet than at St Simons, so many building to see. I especially enjoyed the fresnel lens displayed! Their gift shop was larger and had a greater variety of items than St Simons (unless St Simons has changed things of course). St Augustine had a very nice gift shop as well. The town of St Augustine is very nice to walk in the evening and has a walking ghost tour.

If you enjoy Harley (as in motorcycles) stores, there is a really big one very near Ponce Inlet.

By the way you will pass by the Daytona speedway on your way to Ponce if you use the Interstate route and take the Daytonia Speedway exit. That is the exit I used to get to Ponce driving almost all the way to the beach and making a right turn.

Bill, while all the lights you want to visit are great ones, to me the premier lights (in order) are Ponce, St. Aug and probably a tie between St. Simons and St. Marks.

At St. Markes you have a magnificent setting with the opportunity for a boatload of pictures from a lot of angles. Not sure how often they may open the light, but the inside is not the selling point on this one.

St. Simons is a nice setting, lots of opportunity for pictures from a variety of angles. You can climb the light and it is a nice little museum. Interesting town with shops and such (much of what you would expect from a tourist heavy area).

St. Augustine is a wonderful area - the whole city is pretty cool. The light is a wonderfully done light station with a museum, nice grounds, the ability to climb.

The reason Ponce is the #1 IMO is the lens display. Not often you get to see a first order, much less two of them, on display. The lens house is just great - the potential for images at night is really great. The front of the building is all glass so it makes some great night time shots. Add in a tower you can climb, a nicely restored light station that has been made into a great overall museum and you have a place you could easily spend a couple hours. (and a great gift shop . . .). And, you might be able to cruise on the famous Daytona Beach.

Before you head out do check the respective web sites to see if it is worthwhile to join their society. Think someone already mentioned it. Sometimes the cost is no more than the two of you would spend on admission plus you get a discount at the gift shop and often a periodic newsletter.

If it works out with your schedule, there is a night climb at St. Augustine. Standing out on the gallery while the fresnel revolves above you and the city lights lay below is well worth all the ghost stuff you have to listen to. The night tour is very popular, so you have to make reservations. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I have one more question to ask: As far as St. Marks, I keep hearing about alligators and having to "wade through a marsh" to get certain photos. Is this area a place where the alligators are fully visible or is it swampy enough that you can sneak up on one and not realize it? This might seem like a silly question, but I am not around alligators very often down here, and would prefer to keep my legs connected to my body. lol ... I would love to hear safety thoughts from anyone that has been there.

Dave ... It looks like I was thinking on the right track. Those are the four major lights (in the exact order you have) that I'm planning to focus on. I will ensure I leave plenty of time for Ponce. It sounds like it's going to be a blast.

Laura ... I'm going to take your advice and do a night tour of St. Augustine on my way back to Jacksonville from Ponce. I had forgotten they did those until you mentioned it and it just so happens they have one at 10:30 p.m. - just around the time I am scheduled to pass back through the Augustine area. I will call and check to see if reservations are left this afternoon. Thanks so much!

Once again. Great advice. Thanks to everybody!

I shot pictures of this guy from the safety of my car from the road.. I think for the most part the gators are well feed, since they are in the middle of a wildlife preserve and there is plenty of food source for them. In four trips to St. Marks over the years, I have only seen one gator even close to the lighthouse. You just need to be aware that they are in the area and don't wade in the marsh area. They are just as afraid of you as you are of them.

The following is a link of some other St. Mark images plus some other Florida panhandle lighthouses in 2008. I didn't wade to get any of these images, there are plenty of photo opportunities without wading..

Florida Lights

Regarding the St. Augustine night climb. Take a tripod to the top.

You will be 'below' the rotating beacon which will form a kind of 'umbrella' of light over you and spreading out to the horizon.

This light has the most amazing pattern. Get some time exposures of 30 seconds or so of the light rotating. And hope for a bit of a misty night so the light is more visible.

It's been a while since I was at Amelia. It is now owned by the city. Check with them on access to the light. I drove right up to the light and passed through the gate to get photos of from the grounds when I was there.

I love St. Augustine as a town (we usually eat with friends downstairs at the A1A Ale House), but having been to Ponce, I wasn't that impressed with the lighthouse - especially since I wasn't going to climb it. Of course I did not actually visit the museum so I could be wrong.

There is, or was, a restaurant called The Brickyard in Daytona which is kind of a family tavern - motorcycle place. Take International Speedway Blvd. (US 92) about 5 blocks west of Ridgewood Avenue (US 1) and look for the A frame restaurant directly across the street from Gary Yoman Ford.

I just learned at the meeting last night that Pensacola will be doing a special Night Tour "Full Moon Tours". But unfortunately a week later than your trip through! (These tours will be Thurs Aug 6, Fri Aug 7, and Sat Aug 8)

If you go to Amelia Island, you can shoot down A1A and get the St. Johns River Lighthouse. Go onto the Mayport Naval Station, and you can see both lighthouses.

Getting on base may be a problem.

You can see the Mayport light easily from the fence along the airport perimeter. The St. John's light can't be seen unless you are on the base.

^^^^

Last I heard, you can go to the main entrance of the base, and get a pass to see the lighthouses. I've seen the St. Johns River lighthouse along the fence there. But, behind you is an old church that would look amazing in a photo from the other side of the fence.