Really Florida!

Posts Tagged ‘North Florida’

Yesterday was South Florida, and today is Central and North Florida beach pictures.

These are the beaches that I grew up with. New Smyrna, Daytona, Cocoa and Crescent. Cocoa is the only one from Central Florida in this group, the rest are in North Florida.

The picture you see here is of St. Augustine Beach. As you can tell, the beach is much wider than the South Florida Beach photo I showed yesterday.

The Central and North Florida beaches tend to be rougher, surf-wise, than most of the rest of Florida. Cocoa, New Smyrna and Daytona tend to have the best wave action, and are where the surfers congregate.

Daytona and New Smyrna beaches are located in Volusia County, which is one of only two in the state that allow you to drive your car directly onto the beach. This is quite convenient, if you are the type to bring lots of items to the beach (which may or may not include children). Of course, it also involves having a lot of sand in the vehicle! When I was growing up we often went to New Smyrna Beach and drove right onto it, so I can attest to the “sand in the car” part.

St. Augustine is the stretch of sand in North Florida that I’m more used to now. St. John’s County, where St. Augustine is located, also allows driving directly onto the beach — but in far more restricted areas — I get the feeling that they are trying to stop it from happening altogether.

The second photo is of Crescent Beach, where I went when I was in school at the University of Florida. As you can see in this photo, the beach is somewhat rocky in spots (the whole beach isn’t like this by any means). The beach is fairly crowded in the summertime, but pretty calm after August. If I remember right, this photo was taken in late August and there were few people on the beach that day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this set of pictures of Florida beaches. Next stop — the Panhandle.