Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
Let's see.
We have covered what lies to the East of Grayton Beach pretty well. In a bit we will take a look to the West.
But, for now, let's take a look around the park.
Grayton Beach is a State Park operated by the State of Florida. Florida keeps things pretty simple. If you want to visit the park, you pay an entry fee. Here, it is $5.00 a car load. You pay at a guard station as you enter the park. The fee is less if you enter on foot or bicycle. If you want to camp, reservations are made through reserveamerica.com.
This is the guard shack, where you check in and enter the park:
There isn't much to this park. It has a campground, and it has a beach. That's about it. There are also cabins available to rent, but those are actually on a completely separate piece of property about a mile to the West. The cabins have a separate beach access, so that area is not really a part of the park proper. The cabin area is closed off by an electric gate, and only registered cabin guests can go in there.
Here is a map of the campground:
As you can see, there are two loops. Up until last year (2009), the lower loop on this map, with 35 campsites, was the entire campground. In 2009, they added the second loop, which has about 23 campsites. The difference between the old loop and the new loop is that there are sewer connections at the sites on the new loop. Also, the new loop has a new, nicer, comfort station. But, as you will see, the new loop also has a lot less trees and privacy. And, the pads are gravel instead of sand.
For sake of comparison, the 100 loop at FW has 27 sites, and the 200 loop has 37. So, the entire Grayton Beach campground has less sites than the 100 and 200 loops at the Fort. And, that's the whole campground. So, we are dealing with a lot less people, noise and commotion. And, that's a good thing.
Let's take a look at the facilities.
This is the comfort station in the old loop. It sits in the middle of the loop, and there are multiple paths from and between the interior site in the loop which lead to it:
It looks kind of old and out of date. And it is.
This is the bulletin board with all of the rules. The rules tell us that we can have a golf cart, and it can be used on any of the roads, but it must be operated by a licensed driver. The rules also tell us the no alcoholic beverages are allowed in the park. Uh-oh. I didn't know about that rule. But, at the recycling bin, over 50% of the aluminum cans were beer cans, so it looks like this rule is not strictly enforced.
Here are some interior shots of the comfort station:
This is where things get a little scary.
This is one of the showers:
The latch on this shower door was broken. But a tent peg was provided so the door could be barred from intruding hillbillies and mutants, so no worries here:
Here I should say that I am not a person with high standards. But even too me, these showers were a little bit too gross. To this point, I have not developed a case of athlete's foot. But, I wouldn't be surprised at all if I caught something from those shower floors.
Here are the toilet facilities. They even have a stall #2:
For some reason, someone determined that it was essential for us to have Coca Cola products at our disposal, so here we have a small building and Coke machine for our camping enjoyment:
Here's how things look on the old loop. Very heavy vegetation between the sites, and lots of privacy and shade:
Here we are entering the new loop, where we will find lots of openness between the sites and almost no trees and shade:
Here is a shot of the back of the guard shack. As you can see, they sell ice and firewood here. The ice is $3.00 for a ten pound bag, and the firewood is $6.00 a bundle:
That's all for now.
But there is a lot more to come.
So, be sure to check back.
TCD
We have covered what lies to the East of Grayton Beach pretty well. In a bit we will take a look to the West.
But, for now, let's take a look around the park.
Grayton Beach is a State Park operated by the State of Florida. Florida keeps things pretty simple. If you want to visit the park, you pay an entry fee. Here, it is $5.00 a car load. You pay at a guard station as you enter the park. The fee is less if you enter on foot or bicycle. If you want to camp, reservations are made through reserveamerica.com.
This is the guard shack, where you check in and enter the park:
There isn't much to this park. It has a campground, and it has a beach. That's about it. There are also cabins available to rent, but those are actually on a completely separate piece of property about a mile to the West. The cabins have a separate beach access, so that area is not really a part of the park proper. The cabin area is closed off by an electric gate, and only registered cabin guests can go in there.
Here is a map of the campground:
As you can see, there are two loops. Up until last year (2009), the lower loop on this map, with 35 campsites, was the entire campground. In 2009, they added the second loop, which has about 23 campsites. The difference between the old loop and the new loop is that there are sewer connections at the sites on the new loop. Also, the new loop has a new, nicer, comfort station. But, as you will see, the new loop also has a lot less trees and privacy. And, the pads are gravel instead of sand.
For sake of comparison, the 100 loop at FW has 27 sites, and the 200 loop has 37. So, the entire Grayton Beach campground has less sites than the 100 and 200 loops at the Fort. And, that's the whole campground. So, we are dealing with a lot less people, noise and commotion. And, that's a good thing.
Let's take a look at the facilities.
This is the comfort station in the old loop. It sits in the middle of the loop, and there are multiple paths from and between the interior site in the loop which lead to it:
It looks kind of old and out of date. And it is.
This is the bulletin board with all of the rules. The rules tell us that we can have a golf cart, and it can be used on any of the roads, but it must be operated by a licensed driver. The rules also tell us the no alcoholic beverages are allowed in the park. Uh-oh. I didn't know about that rule. But, at the recycling bin, over 50% of the aluminum cans were beer cans, so it looks like this rule is not strictly enforced.
Here are some interior shots of the comfort station:
This is where things get a little scary.
This is one of the showers:
The latch on this shower door was broken. But a tent peg was provided so the door could be barred from intruding hillbillies and mutants, so no worries here:
Here I should say that I am not a person with high standards. But even too me, these showers were a little bit too gross. To this point, I have not developed a case of athlete's foot. But, I wouldn't be surprised at all if I caught something from those shower floors.
Here are the toilet facilities. They even have a stall #2:
For some reason, someone determined that it was essential for us to have Coca Cola products at our disposal, so here we have a small building and Coke machine for our camping enjoyment:
Here's how things look on the old loop. Very heavy vegetation between the sites, and lots of privacy and shade:
Here we are entering the new loop, where we will find lots of openness between the sites and almost no trees and shade:
Here is a shot of the back of the guard shack. As you can see, they sell ice and firewood here. The ice is $3.00 for a ten pound bag, and the firewood is $6.00 a bundle:
That's all for now.
But there is a lot more to come.
So, be sure to check back.
TCD
