Let me start by saying that this was my favorite camping trip that we've been on yet! The crazy thing is that we waited until October to go to this campsite because it was the only time they had open when we were trying to book. At first I was worried that it may be a little cold when we went, but turns out Octobers in Florida are AMAZING. The weather was perfect. There were a couple nights that we were pretty chilly, but the days were so comfortable. The only problem with camping in Florida- sand in all of your gear, for months to come. Even my purse is still producing sand somehow. Anyway, I'm going to share where we stayed and everything about our trip, so we hope you read through this post :)
This was the first trip where we got to try out our new tent. We hesitated to buy the tent because we only had one camping trip left for the season, but I'm so glad we just bit the bullet and purchased it. We started out with a 4 person tent for two twin air mattresses and 3 dogs. We were a bit squished in there. It worked for a while, but we really just needed more room. In the 4 person tent, we weren't able to bring any bags or gear in there except for our purses. There just wasn't enough room. Now we can stand in our tent and bring our clothes in there and not trip over the dogs. It's glorious!
When we first arrived in Florida, we stayed the night in Pensacola. I'm so glad we did because we got to visit the dog beach! This was great because we were able to hang on the beach that day and the next with the dogs. 30A beaches don't allow visitor dogs and most beaches don't have a dog friendly option. So being able to do this gave us extra time on the beach.
We headed to Grayton Beach State Park the next day for the rest of our trip. This trip was very different than our other camping trips because we were in a destination area. All of our other trips had been in the middle of nowhere and camping was our destination. This time it was a mix of the relaxing that comes with camping, but also being in a place that you want to explore.
Grayton Beach State Park has it's own private beach (you have to pay to enter if you are not camping there) and it's beautiful and serene. We walked there with the dogs the first night to see the sunset. Dogs are not allowed on this beach, but they are allowed on the stroll there and the sand dune hike that is right by the beach.
One of our IG friends was our inspiration for the location of our trip. She and her husband were camping at the park and it's looked idyllic, so we booked our stay. She also had been to a place called Black Bear Bread Co., so that was something we knew we wanted to check out. Tip for every traveler ever- share the places you go and love because you never know who needs advice on where to go! We wouldn't know about half of the places we go if we hadn't heard about them from someone. Traveling and finding good places to visit can be really overwhelming, especially when you read articles named "15 Best Restaurants In Tulum." How will I ever visit 15 restaurants in Tulum during my one week stay?!? Seeing a friend or family member say they just went to + loved a certain restaurant or place makes it easy for me to know where I want to go.
This place was super cute. They have huge cinnamon rolls that are delicious, a croissant sandwich that was melt-in-your-mouth good and an oatmeal bowl (Casey ate this twice she loved it so much)! And, they serve Stumptown coffee, so you know it's good (Casey tells me this is the good stuff).
Hazel kept having sand mustache at the campsite.
Side note- this is my favorite flavored sparkling water of all time. It's almost like you are drinking a Sunkist, but without all the sugar. It's a very pleasant beverage!
One of the days in Grayton, we took the dogs to doggy day care. This allowed us to have a whole day of exploring and doing things that we couldn't do with them, like go to the beach at Seaside.
The next day we went on two hikes with the dogs, one on the sand dunes in Grayton Beach State Park and one that we happened upon while driving around Santa Rosa Beach.
Some of the hike was closed due to Hurricane Irma damage, but we enjoyed the part that was open anyway. Hiking in the sand is weird, y'all.
The second hike we did was in Point Washington State Park. We had no idea this park existed, but we drove by it on our way to Grayton, so we knew we wanted to check it out. This is what we love about camping. If we were coming to vacation in Florida, only planning to lay on the beach all day everyday (which is fabulous and something I love to do), then we would've never noticed this forest or spent time exploring it.
But I'm so glad we spent time here because it was gorgeous.
We felt like we went through so many ecosystems on this hike. It was an easy hike, but definitely worth doing with all the landscape changes that happen.
After the two hikes, we decided to try to go to this restaurant that Casey wanted to try, but with the dogs..... Guess what we have never done? Taken all three dogs to a restaurant- except the time when Hazel was a teeny tiny puppy, we did sneak her into a Cracker Barrel by putting her in Casey's purse. It was the day we had picked her up in Ohio and she weighed 3 lbs. That was a lot easier! But the dogs actually did pretty well. We sat in their outside area where they allow dogs and everything was fine. We did have to settle them down a couple times, but for the most part they just chilled and watched us eat.
The restaurant was called Chiringo, by the way. The cocktail Casey had was perfect, can't remember what it was called though.
When we were done eating, the sun had just set, but there was still a little light. There is an entrance right across the street from Chiringo, so we headed over there to catch the a last glimpse.
Okay I'm only putting these photos of our dogs in here because these were all taken with Casey's iPhone.... Portrait mode is AMAZING y'all.
One day we are going to do a post on traveling/camping with dogs. We have learned a lot of tips and tricks that we think could be beneficial to our readers :)
The sunsets here were so amazing.
Hazel clearly didn't want to leave. She was protesting by laying on all of our stuff as we were packing up our campsite.
Anyway, we really loved this campsite. We were staying at campsite 11, but I really don't think there was a bad space there. If you plan on making a trip to Grayton Beach State Park, make sure you book way in advance. They book very quickly.
Some of our favorites from this trip:
-
Our new tent!
-
Clip-on LED light
-
Our new cots
-
This cooler
-
Our straw hats
-
Aquafina Orange Grapefruit
If you liked this post, share this post on Pinterest!
xo, Savannah
