Beach Camping at Flagler Beach

I'm working my way down the east coast of Florida towards the Florida Keys and spent the weekend camped at Gambles State Park at Flagler Beach, Florida.

Flagler Beach is now a small beach vacation town with plenty of homes setup as either vacation properties or winter homes for snowbirds that fly down from up north. It's very much a typical east coast beach town: Quiet, lots of empty houses awaiting vacationers or winter snowbirds from the north, a friendly character and not a lot of traffic.

I've never camped on or near a beach before so when I saw a camping icon with a state park near a beach, I figured I'd just show up and give it a try. It's here I learned that camping in Florida is very popular and most of the folks I met had made their reservations online months in advance. Because someone left early, I got to use their campsite for one night to try the place out.

After a long bike ride the next morning, I decided I was in no hurry to leave. I'd met Mark and Sherry Bean of the Amelia Beach, Florida area the night I arrived and they invited me to pitch a tent on their site for another night. So I spent another 24 hours reminded that camping has many benefits including the new friends you make and the kindness between strangers that camping seems to bring out in everyone around me.

Of the city itself, the most memorable thing I saw was the Pirate House. What a cool idea in a sea of relatively bland beach homes. At the time I arrived to take photos an ambulance had just arrived a few doors down to attend to someone and a resident of the Pirate house was on the roof deck watching. But I didn't notice because she blended in so well!