St. George Island State Park sits at the edge of Apalachicola Bay, a barrier island separating the brackish water of the estuary from the salty Gulf of Mexico. As I drove through the entrance gates, life seemed to erupt everywhere I looked. Beginning on the Gulf of Mexico beach, I followed dozens of shorebirds as…

The afternoon light had already begun to dim as I set foot on the Royal Palm Nature Trail near the Collier-Seminole State Park boat launch. I have become used to the pine and scrub vegetation of the Florida Panhandle, so the trees and bushes bordering the gravel trail and boardwalk seemed absolutely tropical. Upon researching…

The Santa Fe river reflected the blue sky and green canopy above like a mirror, its current only creating the faintest of ripples as water moved leisurely downstream. O’Leno State Park was relatively quiet in the afternoon heat, a faint buzz of insects providing the only background noise under the quiet crunch of my hiking…