We Found the Most Natural Beach Near St. Augustine, Florida!

What's going on everyone? Welcome back. Today we are in St. Augustine, Florida at Anastasia State Park. This is a beautiful park that's located just minutes from historic St. Augustine and it actually is a park that helped build this beautiful city. So it has 1600 acres of beaches, dunes, marshes, hammocks. Let's go check it out. Let's go do it. So before you even make it to the ranger station entrance, you can actually stop here at the quarry trail to see the old historic Spanish quarry. Where is it found? The Anastasia Formation lies under the ancient sand dunes and maritime hammocks that blanket the east coast of Florida. Oh look, there's like a little overlook here. Spanish mining of the quarry. Work in the quarry began in 1671. Native American workers had the All right, so this is the quarry. Yeah. We went ahead and did the rest of the trail because we didn't know if there was anything worth seeing down there and there's not. Yeah, there's not. It just ends at a parking lot, so if you're curious. But yeah, this is really as far as you need to go. I mean, I would recommend doing this little trail that goes up into the woods up here because that was really fun. It was kind of narrow. Yeah, do the little loop that goes down here, but you don't need to go past that. And then, yeah, and then I would just probably just take the loop-de-loop and then walk through the quarry and back here and that's probably all you really need to see. So this is the actual quarry where they got all the coquina to build the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine and it's actually on the National Register of Historic Places too. At least that's what I have in my notes, so hopefully that's right. But yeah, that's really cool. So this is like where they got all the coquina to build the Castillo. It's amazing. I mean, there must have been so much coquina here because that Castillo is gigantic. I can't believe that they hauled it all the way from here all the way to where the Castillo is because that's that's quite a height. It says ox-pulled carts transported the blocks of stone over land and then dugout canoes fashioned with planks as barges ferried the blocks across the water. Look at that. This is what they were harvesting right here. Well, that was fun. I always enjoy finding a little piece of history, you know, and being able to see something that you don't really get to see every day. Even though it doesn't look like much, that was where history was made back there, which is, I think, is still pretty cool. All right, let's head to our next location. Oh yeah, this is the Ancient Dunes Trail. Oh, cool. So the Ancient Dunes Trail. This trail leads through a series of old sand dunes that were formed by wind and wave action during the time when the ocean extended farther inland than it does now. Now a forest stands where once only sea oats could survive. This leisurely 30-minute walk will end near the sea bean loop. So look, there's little doggy bags here so you can bring your dog friends. It's a beautiful little trail. It almost doesn't feel like it's like so close to the to the water. It feels like you're further inland in like a forest or something. It is a beautiful day today. It's like a perfect 67 degrees. It's the perfect time to go outside and explore. Look at this beautiful oak tree. Wow, look at this section. Look at how so very Florida this looks with the saw palmettos on either side. So pretty. Saw palmettos and this incredible oak tree. This is pretty. This hike is only about a mile. It's a short little hike. Yeah. So there's a couple trails. They're both pretty short, like a mile or less. And then if you want to do a longer hike, there's like four miles of beach line that you can walk all the way to the very tip of the island. That's cool. But you can also rent bikes too. Yeah, if you don't want to walk it, you can rent bicycles and bike it. I think if they if they still have a couple of bikes available, we might have to do that. Yeah, usually the park is eight dollars a vehicle, but for some reason today they said it was a free entry day. So we got in for free today. I know. Yeah, it's Valentine's Day. So what better reason to get in free at the state park? Oh, and it's part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. I already got my first bird. Yes. No, I got two birds. I got a pelican. Yeah. Noah was over over by the water capturing birds when we first arrived. That was the first thing he did. Someone's got to do it. Birds aren't going to capture themselves. Are we heading up a dune right now? Is this an ancient dune? Let's head up the dune. I think this might be an ancient dune. Oh, the resurrection fern. This fern is found throughout the state, usually on the branches of old oak trees growing in shaded hammocks during periods of drought. The fern shrivels to a dormant, dense brown mass and appears lifeless after rainfall. The dried ferns resurrect into a lush, deep green fern. We're definitely going up and down. So I'm thinking, even though there's no like signs to tell you if you're climbing an ancient sand dune or an ancient dune. That's the name of the trail. I mean, I would assume. Yeah, that's the whole trail is that these are all ancient dunes. We're about to head up another dune and this one looks taller than the rest of them. Easy peasy. Look at you, climbing lighthouses, climbing dunes. I know. Well, this is a really fun little trail. You know, before I would have avoided a trail like this because I hated having to climb up and down. But now I'm pretty excited for the challenge to see if I can make it up there. And these aren't so bad. These are like little baby mole hills. I did. Sure did. Okay, so we are heading over to the marsh trail now, which is just this this trail that goes like right along the water. So it's about a mile one way. So if you want to do the whole thing, it's probably two miles out and back. Hopefully it's not too marshy because I didn't wear my hiking boots today. Marsh trail. So here's the little boat launch if you want to bring your own kayak or rent a kayak or canoe or paddleboard. Looks like a beautiful place to go and kayak out into the mangroves. That pelican is still going at it. They do kind of look like mountains over there. Right? Yeah, if you squint, they almost kind of look like snow-capped mountains in the distance. I saw the sand like moving. Oh, there it is. There's one right there. Oh, he just went into his little hole. Oh, yeah, look. Oh my gosh, they're so tiny. Yeah, I just saw the the sand like moving ahead of us. And I was like, what in the world is that? And there are these little tiny, itsy bitsy crabs. I don't even know if it would even like come across on camera. They're so small. Oh, look, there's like a little trail that goes straight to the water, like straight through the mangroves. Whoa. Look at all these oyster shells. That is a lot of oyster shells. That's a lot of oyster shells. Pelicans still diving, diving into the water over there. Those are different pelicans. Oh, look, there goes another one. I don't know why I'm so amused by that, but I just love it. So this marsh trail is definitely a lot more wide open than the ancient dunes trails. So it's probably going to be excruciating during the summertime because there's not really a lot of shade out here. In the beginning of February, it's actually quite nice to be able to feel the sun on your back and the cool breeze coming off of the water. But I don't know if I would want to do this trail during the summer. But it is a really cool trail because it goes right next to the mangroves here. And there's a few little trails that go out into the water where you can just walk right up to where the oysters are at the edge of the water, which is really cool. Actually, I was wrong. The whole trail is one mile. It's half mile down, half mile back. So it's not bad at all. So might as well just do the whole thing. Yeah, it's only a half mile out, half mile back. Dang, we're already halfway down the trail, but we've only gone a quarter of a mile. Oh, OK. So yeah, it's only a mile total. So that's not, that's not bad at all. So there are a few of these little offshoots that go right out to the water. So this one looks like it goes out to like a little, little sandy beach. So this trail is a lot less crowded than the other trail. Yeah, the other trail is good if you want like to go up and down dunes and do it through a more wooded area. This one's more open, but you can come right over here to the water in a few areas and it's really pretty. And is that, look, it's a St. Augustine Lighthouse. You can see the very tippy top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse from here. We just climbed that and it was a hundred, 219 steps, but it was a beautiful view at the very top of that lighthouse. So while you're here, if you are visiting this state park, you definitely should head over the short drive that it is over to the lighthouse. It's only like less than a five minute drive. I highly recommend getting there early in the morning because it is a very popular place to go. And by the time that we left, that parking lot was packed. Yeah, it's very popular. I don't know if it's just because it's Valentine's day or what, but yeah, definitely get there early if you want to have any time to yourself at all at the lighthouse. Yeah, we got there like right at nine and we were able to be one of two couples that were up at the top of the lighthouse. But by the time that we left, there was a guy that was radioing down saying that they were full at the top of the lighthouse. So you definitely want to make sure that you get there as early as possible. We just got back into the jeep and now we are heading down beach area for something, which is nice. I'm starving right now. Oh yeah, it looks like there's plenty of parking. Let's go see what food they got. Yeah, let's go see what kind of food they serve. All right, so we just got our food at the concession stand. I got some chicken tenders. Now I got a burger. What kind of burger did you get? Just a regular beach burger. Lettuce, tomato, and onion. Okay, so like a regular burger. Regular burger. Okay. It was an extra dollar for cheese. Oh. Like I'm not paying a dollar for cheese. Yeah, the chicken tenders are a little small, but that's okay. I'm starving. I will eat anything right now. Rice are delicious. All right y'all, we got a couple of bikes here. We're going to be taking these out for about an hour. Okay, so we're taking our bikes and we're going to try to walk a little bit further closer to the water where the sand seems a little bit more impacted. Oh yeah, this is fun. I'm totally glad we did this. Noah's over here catching birds. Did you get a new one? This is beautiful. What a perfect way to end a perfect day. All right, well that does it for this adventure. Thank you guys for joining us today. We had a lot of fun exploring Anastasia State Park. This is a beautiful place and I highly recommend renting a couple of bikes and just biking them down at the beach. It's just such a perfect experience. You get to bike a little bit further past the crowded people and you have this incredible secluded beach all to yourself, which is amazing. Yeah, we were almost too tired to rent the bikes. We were like, maybe we should just walk a little bit. We were like, no, let's rent them. Yeah, and I'm glad we did. It's definitely worth it. It's kind of hard to bike on the loose sand, but once you get down next to the shore, it's a lot easier. Yeah, you bike just a little bit until the crowd is gone and then you just have it all to yourself. Yeah, miles of beach. Miles of beach just all to yourself and it's absolutely incredible. So, highly recommend. Just beautiful. You have your sand dudes on this side and then ocean on your other side and it's just such an experience. So, thank you guys so much for joining us on this incredible adventure. If you enjoyed this, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe if you would love to see more of our adventures in the future. We have quite a few planned for 2026, so we would love for you to join us. Also, huge thank you to our channel members. You guys help keep us going and we couldn't be more thankful to you. So, if you would love to support what we do here and get exclusive emotes, early access to our videos and more, make sure to click the link in the video description for more details and... Hold on, I'm catching birds here. Very important. Okay, yeah. No one's doing more important things over here like catching birds. But if you want to see our theme park videos, make sure to check out our second channel called The Q Life. That's where we put all of our theme park guides and all of our Disney Universal Sea World. All that stuff will be over there. I appreciate you taking the break from catching birds to tell everyone about our second channel. Hold on, let's see what we got here. Let's see what we got. Okay, what did you get? What did you get? A willet. A willet? Willet. Willet. Caught him good. Stood no chance. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for joining. YouTube thinks that you would enjoy this other state park video right up here somewhere in this vicinity. So, we'll see you over there and I hope you have a great one. Bye. Bye.