I've wanted to visit Big Talbot State Park since the time I found out about it (and that's been a long time!).  Finally, we are over in the Jacksonville Beach area camping (when we stayed at Hanna Park) and I'm getting that chance!  I saw several signs indicating that we were entering the "Florida keys area of the north" because all of these parks in this area are on little islands.  There are several different parks as you travel north on A1A and bridges that attach the different islands to each other.

Little Talbot State Park
 

Our first trip out this way we visited Little Talbot State Park - this park was nearly empty when we visited early on the week day.  Dogs are not allowed on the beach, so we took turns going out to see the water - a beach with no one on it.  Ever think you might see that?

Little Talbot State Park has several decking paths through the sand dunes to the beach.  They also have picnic shelters and bathrooms.  When I arrived at the beach, it was empty!  Something that you don't see to often here on the west coast.

Little Talbot State Park was more 'formal' with a ranger station to stop and pay as I have been accustomed to. 

Big Talbot State Park

But I really wanted to see the boneyard beach.  This was a little harder to figure out exactly where to go - we wanted to take a short hike, not the longer one which is several miles.  In reading on a website, I found that we were looking for a sign that said "The Bluffs" (scenic shoreline picnic area).  This was located on the right if you're coming from Jacksonville area.  It's not big, you could miss it.

When I saw the sign, we pulled in to the area and drove around a little bit trying to figure out what the next step was to get to the boneyard.  There is an overlook that you can see from the parking area - so I know I'm in the right area.

 I spotted another sign.  This one said "Shoreline Access Trail" and another brown sign with the details of the trail.

So, based on this sign, we can do the hike with the dogs but they are not supposed to be on the beach.  The trail itself was not a long hike, perhaps a half mile one way.  This is a hike in-hike out trail (not a loop).   We started the hike - the dogs loved going on trails, so they had no issue starting down this path. 

Before we got to to the beach, here's the girls waiting with me.

Abby choose to face the way Jim had gone to the beach.

Rue choose to guard the backpack with the goods! (water/snacks)

Ollie found herself a little patch of shade (and apparently has a wrinkled nose in this photo).

I've seen this tree in photos before, I suspect that it has been there a long time.
 

The beach was pretty wide, only a few other people wandering around (like 4) and it was a quiet atmosphere.  If the dogs were allowed on the beach, we probably would have stayed a lot longer, but we took turns each spending about 30 minutes on the beach while the other hung out at the end of the trail with the dogs.

Boneyard beach is all about the driftwood from trees laying along this part of the ocean.  This is how the beach is naturally, whereas the beach at Little Talbot State Park is clean of any driftwood.

We visited mid day, I'm sure this is beautiful at sunrise!  If you get a chance, drive on out to see this wonderful state park - Big Talbot State Park is located on State Road A1A North, Jacksonville, Florida 32226.  The location we stopped at did not appear to have any park rangers.  If it hadn't been for someone's review of "The Bluffs" online I'm not sure that I would have found it.

Fernandina Beach

We continued on State Road A1A all the way to Fernandina Beach.  Winding through the little islands that are attached by bridges (hate to see a hurricane evacuation for this area!).  Once we got into the downtown area of Fernandina Beach, we found a nice dog friendly place to grab some lunch.  If you're in the area, you might want to check this place out, Timoti's.

The 'twins' hanging out by the outside table with us (Abby was somewhere, but couldn't get a photo of her).

After lunch we headed back to the campground which was a good number of miles back on A1A.  And across that darn bridge that scares me!

I took a lot of photographs of this bridge because I can't stand bridges like this one (too high and reminds me of the Sunshine Skyway).  But when it was my turn to drive across it, that was worse!

That's it for this adventure.  Hope you enjoy following our travels.