Our trip had us starting on Florida's East Coast, so, looking at the map, we came across this oceanfront park 30 miles south of St. Augustine that looked like a great place to begin. We opted to reserve a spot for 3 nights...
AND...as a start it was nice. Our site wasn't an ocean viewing spot though—plants were in the way—for future reference, sites to the north of the bathhouse have great views, those south have plants...one can HEAR the ocean from anywhere though, and that still beats PA for this time of year.
We had 2 really nice days here. The boys played on the beach for long periods of time (water's cold, but for wading and playing in the sand, it was fine—some folks DID swim). We also went across the street to do the nature hike. That was OK, but not superb. They have very little information to go with the hike, so all one does is stroll through a section of undeveloped Florida gazing at the plants and an occasional bird or animal (which IS nice considering our goal for this trip—relaxation).
The good/great points of this campground?
#1 - It is RIGHT on the ocean—a very short stroll over a dune to the beach—and a GREAT walking beach at that. Oceanview sites had a tremendous view. Ours had nature's ocean melody.
#2 - The bathhouse is one of the best we've been in—and one of the best in Florida's State Parks. There are flush toilets and HOT showers with a private dressing room that includes a seat and hooks, etc., for changing.
The downfalls to this campground are:
#1 - You're right next to the road, so besides hearing nature's wonderful ocean music, you also have man's traffic noise.
#2 - The weather this time of year is not at all predictable. We lucked out with 76 and 84 degree days for the first 2 days we were there—nigh onto perfect—BUT they were the only days that warm in the forecast. Most were in the 60s or even 50s.
We opted to leave 1 day early due to colder weather and rain on the way...to head further south. While this did make a nice "Get off Interstate 95" break, I'm unsure if we would do it again this time of year due to the unpredictability of the weather—especially since we tent camp. In an RV it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Different times of the year (May - Sept) Loggerhead Turtles nest here. While we were there (Jan) we saw plenty of tropical birds, palm trees, and blue water—a good, relaxing start to our winter break.