Jacksonville, FL state park
A Florida state park south of Amelia Island across Nassau Sound, best known for Boneyard Beach — a shoreline strewn with the bleached, salt-killed skeletons of fallen live oaks, one of the most photographed coastal landscapes in the state.
Big Talbot Island is twenty minutes south of Amelia Island, across the Nassau Sound bridge, and it contains the most photographed piece of shoreline in northeast Florida.
The island's east shore is eroding. As it retreats, the live oaks that grew behind the dune are undercut, fall onto the beach, and are killed and bleached by salt and sun. The result is a shoreline littered with pale, sculptural driftwood skeletons — whole trees, roots and all — against dark sand and open Atlantic.
It is genuinely striking, and it photographs better than almost anything else on this coast. Sunrise is the light for it, since the beach faces east.
Getting to it involves a short walk and a scramble. The trail from the parking area runs through maritime forest and then drops down a bluff to the beach. It is not long, but it is not a boardwalk either — the descent is steep, sandy and uneven in places, and it changes as the bluff erodes.
Florida State Parks charges a per-vehicle entry fee, set by the state; check the park's page rather than trusting a figure here.
Facilities are minimal — this is a day-use natural area, not a developed beach park. There is no lifeguard, and swimming here is not the point: the erosion that makes the beach beautiful also makes it uneven underfoot, with submerged wood and shifting bottom.
Big Talbot has bluff-top trails through maritime hammock and views over Nassau Sound, plus a kayak launch on the sound side. Blackrock Beach is another access to the same shoreline character.
Little Talbot Island State Park, immediately south, is the more conventional beach: five miles of undeveloped barrier-island shoreline, trails, a campground, and actual swimming. The two make one good half-day together.
The natural route from Amelia Island runs south on A1A: Big Talbot, Little Talbot, then Fort George Island and Kingsley Plantation in the Timucuan Preserve, and Jacksonville beyond that. Half a day for the islands, a full day if you add Kingsley properly.
The driftwood is the park. Climbing on it is hard on both you and it, moving it rearranges what the next person sees, and taking any of it is prohibited. Photograph it and leave it where the sea put it.
Water and sun cover — the beach has no shade at all. Shoes you can scramble a sandy bluff in. Insect repellent for the forest trail.
Off this map Big Talbot Island, Little Talbot Island
Two hundred undeveloped acres at the island's southern tip on Nassau Sound: beach, dune, marsh and maritime forest, with no buildings and no lifeguards. The only Florida state park offering guided horseback riding on the beach.
Amelia Island State Park at the island's southern tip is the only unit in the Florida state park system that offers horseback riding on the beach. Rides are run by a private concessionaire, guided, by reservation, and they sell out in spring and autumn.
Details unconfirmed
One of the few remaining undeveloped barrier islands in northeast Florida, about 25 minutes south of Amelia Island: five miles of Atlantic beach, maritime forest and marsh trails, a campground, and no development behind the dune.
Details unconfirmed
Part of Amelia Island attractions — our full guide to the complete amelia island, florida visitor guide.