Tallahassee, Pensacola, Panama City & Beyond: An Adventure Guide to Florida's Panhandle

By Jim & Cynthia Tunstall

"This wonderful guidebook is your passport to the 'other' Florida – one that's pretty much removed from the neon and the crowds." -- Vapor Trails. Here we focus on the Panhandle region in Florida's northwest - Apalachicola, Talahassee, Panama City and mor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hunter Publishing
• Release date: Apr 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9781588439475

Book preview

Tallahassee, Pensacola, Panama City & Florida's Panhandle

An Adventure Guide

Jim Tunstall

Cynthia Tunstall

 Introduction 

 Geography & History

The Nature Of Adventure

 How To Use This Book

 Travel Strategies & Helpful Facts

 Western Panhandle

 Geography & History

 Getting Around

 Touring

 Pensacola/Escambia County

 Adventures

 On Foot

 On Horseback

 On Wheels

 On Water

 In The Air

 Eco-Travel Excursions

 Where To Stay & Eat

 Pensacola/Escambia County

 Milton/Santa Rosa County

 Fort Walton Beach/Destin

 South Walton

 Campgrounds

 Central Panhandle

 Geography & History

 Getting Around

 Touring

 Panama City Beach/Bay County

 Washington County

 Holmes County

 Jackson County

 Gulf County

 Adventures

 On Foot

 On Horseback

 On Wheels

 On Water

 In The Air

 Eco-Travel Excursions

 Where To Stay & Eat

 Panama City/Bay County

 Washington County

 Holmes County

 Jackson County

 Calhoun County

 Gulf County

 Campgrounds

Eastern Panhandle

 Geography & History

 Getting Around

 Touring

 Gadsden County

 Liberty County

 Franklin County

 Wakulla County

 Leon County

 Adventures

 On Foot

On Horseback

 On Wheels

 On Water

 Eco-Travel Excursions

 Where To Stay & Eat

 Gadsden County

 Franklin County

 Wakulla County

 Leon County

 Campgrounds

 HUNTER PUBLISHING, INC.

www.hunterpublishing.com

E-mail [e-mail]

IN CANADA:

Ulysses Travel Publications

4176 Saint-Denis, Montréal, Québec

Canada H2W 2M5

514-843-9882 ext. 2232 / fax [phone]

IN THE UNITED KINGDOM:

Windsor Books International

The Boundary, Wheatley Road, Garsington

Oxford, OX44 9EJ England

1865-361122 / fax [phone]

© Jim & Cynthia Tunstall

Maps by Lissa Dailey & Kim André, © Hunter Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the

written permission of the publisher.

This guide focuses on recreational activities. As all such activities

contain elements of risk, the publisher, author, affiliated individuals and

companies disclaim any responsibility for any injury, harm, or illness that

may occur to anyone through, or by use of, the information in this book.

Every effort was made to insure the accuracy of information in this book,

but the publisher and author do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any

liability for loss or damage caused by errors, omissions, misleading

information or potential travel problems caused by this guide, even if such

errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

At the risk of sounding like Academy Award winners, please indulge us for a few moments of thanks. (STOP: Don't skip this part - there's going to be a pop quiz at the end of the book!)

The folks who bring adventuring to you in Florida have their stuff together as you'll discover not only from these pages but the additional information that's available by calling or writing the sources listed throughout the guide.

We offer a great big Thank You to the US Forest Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Recreation and Parks, Florida Marine Patrol, Florida Game & Fresh Water Fish Commission, Office of Greenways and Trails, Florida Forest Service and Florida Department of Transportation. Also, invaluable assistance was provided by the Florida Trail Association, Ned DeLoach's Diving Guide to Underwater Florida, Florida Association of Dive Operators, Florida Association of Canoe Liveries and Outfitters and the Northwest Florida, St. Johns River, Southwest Florida and Suwannee River water management districts. The chambers of commerce and tourist councils that aided in this guide are too numerous to list here, but you'll meet them under the information sources in each chapter.

Special thanks to our publisher, Michael Hunter, and editor, Nikki Krider.

Last, but not least, it would have been impossible to complete this guide without the enthusiasm and tireless work of the Tallahassee Lassies — Debbie, Lorraine, Traci, Shari, Cathy, Sharon, Kelly, Joanna, Jennifer and the rest of the crew at Geiger & Associates.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jim Tunstall has been on the staff of The Tampa Tribune since 1978. He currently is a roving feature writer covering slices of life, back roads and country characters in North Florida. His freelance travel articles have appeared in Better Homes & Gardens, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and dozens of other national and regional publications. This is his first book. He lives in a radar blip called Lecanto, FL with his wife and co-author, two horses, two dogs, two cats, one parrot and a lot of native wildlife. At times the ranch gets a bit crowded.

Cynthia Tunstall has been a freelance writer and photographer for 18 years, specializing in travel, equestrian sports and wildlife. Her stories and art have appeared inIslands, Better Homes & Gardens, CountryAmerica, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, Miami Herald, the Chicago Sun-Times, Buffalo News,San Francisco Examiner and other national and regional publications. She has written two non-travel books, Recipes for Love (Bartlett Publishing) and Training and Showing Your Miniature Horse (Small Horse Press). She is to blame for the menagerie at The Rancho Tunstall.

Introduction

Welcome to the wild, wonderful and sometimes wacky other Florida. (That's the one far from the Land of the Mouse and Miami Vice.)

The wild side of the equation: You're going on a safari into 39 counties in North and Northwest Florida that remain for the most part untamed. While there are isolated pockets of man's handiwork - burger barns, speed traps and time-share salesmen, for example - more than three-quarters of this region is owned by government or large private landholders. Much of this part of Florida remains as it was hundreds of years ago and most of it welcomes. Of course, being wisened travelers and keen students of geography, you already recognize that snow and mountain sports are out in Florida (until the next Ice Age or volcanic awakening), but the north and northwest are rich playing fields for hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders, paddlers, divers, anglers and eco-travelers, among others. You're also going to find plenty of spots to spank a golf ball, as well as some launch pads for less conventional adventures. What about driving a dragster up to 200 mph down the quarter-mile or hurling yourself out of a perfectly safe airplane (two miles above the planet) with nothing between you and the ever after except a ripcord?

The wonderful side: Climate makes this region a year-round destination, though you'll find a few asterisks and precautions a little later in the introduction. Florida's geography makes its adventures within the stamina limits of just about everyone. It's flat with a capital F - the highest summit is a whopping 345 feet above sea level - but unspoiled land, interior waterways and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world make up for the lack of dramatic relief.

The blue-light special: During the next few hundred pages, you're going to run into some colorful characters who provide insights into what North and Northwest Florida, past and present, are all about. Speaking of colorful.

The wacky side: Well, make sure you pack an open mind and a sense of humor. You'll find all kinds of offbeat encounters while you're touring, from UFOs and ghostly tenants to a death-row museum and a road-kill gift shop. You'll meet an artistic elephant, learn how to measure a submerged alligator (without losing a finger) and get a crash-course in hippopotamus husbandry. You're even going to get, at no added charge, a guaranteed way to kill chiggers. (That's especially valuable for northerners who take home a handful of Spanish moss.) By the time you're finished reading you're going to be a certified Marlin Perkins.

What other guide book makes you that offer?

A minor confession: Not every place is untamed. While much of this land is public and a large share of the private tracts are natural, you're going to visit a few of the big population centers - Pensacola, Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, among them. That means limited encounters with crowds, tourist trappings, hot-wired spring breakers and skylines distorted by smog. But there are some nifty adventure bases, too, and they're great landing zones for those coming here by air from faraway places. With the exception of brief excursions into the neon jungle, most of your time is going to be spent in sleepy burgs and fishing villages such as Steinhatchee and Cross Creek, vast forests and wildlife refuges, some of the most challenging canoe trails and dive sites in the Southeast and a wide assortment of other back-to-nature destinations the locals like to call paradise.

When you're finished you may believe they're right. These adventures are going to take you to hundreds of public and private sites - national forests, state parks and trails, water management district tracts and a variety of other staging areas that beg adventurers to have a good time.

If you want to taste the real Florida, this guide book is your meal ticket. It provides all of the information you need to plan an attack on the great outdoors. Ride a trail, paddle a river, peddle a path or hike a historic gateway, literally for days if you have the fortitude, and camp under the stars along the way. Go for a ride on a glider, bi-plane or seaplane; take an airboat and zip along a pristine river; dare to dive into water cold enough to keep your speared quarry fresh for days; or waterski with some of the world's greatest acrobats. But don't worry yourself about frost bite. Unless you stay in a Motel Six and turn the thermostat too low, there are only a dozen or so days when it gets that chilly.

There's enough adventure here to fill your dance card for months.

So call the boss, leave word that you're going to be late and dig in. But don't forget to front-end load - plan ahead, don't fly by the seat of your pants.

Geography & History

The Sunshine State goes from sea to shining sea in a mere matter of 70 miles or less in many places, though in some the path shows much more on the old odometer because of rural road systems.

While a handful of hot spots have become increasingly popular in the last decade or two, much of North and Northwest Florida remains undiscovered and therefore uncrowded. While there are no breathtaking panoramas such as those found in the mountain and canyon states, the canvas here is painted with subtler beauty. The terrain changes from coastal and cypress swamps to dry uplands in a hand ful of miles. You can experience idyllic barrier Islands such as St. George, Cape St. George, St. Vincent and Dog off the Central Panhandle, where there are beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Many of the beaches here are decorated with 40-foot dunes, ghost-white sand and blue-green water. Some of them have been recognized by Stephen Leatherman, the University of Maryland researcher known as Dr. Beach, as among the most beautiful sand slips in the world. Moving into the interior, there are vast wilderness areas such as the Blackwater River State Forest and the Osceola National Forest. And you'll get a chance to see a Florida-style waterfall at Falling Waters State Recreation Area and burn calories on a subterranean hiking trail at Florida Caverns State Park.

The changing habitats you're going to encounter include:

Those cypress swamps, which arguably are the calling cards of Florida. Twisted bald cypress trees rise from pristine rivers that are surrounded by plenty of wildlife, from white-tail deer and wild hogs to river otters, alligators and turtles.

Salt and freshwater marshes, seas of grass that dot the coast and river fronts, respectively, and provide a rich environment for sand hill cranes, ospreys, woodstorks, bald eagles and several other endangered or threatened species.

Forest swamps that are populated with hickory, black and sweet gum, cabbage palms and water oaks, as well as bobcats, turkeys and tune-crooning songbirds.

Prairies, such as Paynes Prairie near Gainesville, which has a diverse mix, from interior wetlands to vast grassy plains to upland forests that are home to native species (owls, raccoons, alligators and wading birds) and some non-native types (American bison and Spanish horses, whose ancestry stretches to the first European