Britton Hill & Port St Joe
Summiting Britton Hill, the Highest Point in Florida | Visiting Port St Joe | Camping in Apalachicola National Forest | January 2024
After making the decision to stay South rather than driving Northeast across Georgia, we took to our maps and the internet to try to figure out what to do in the Florida panhandle. Most of the things we knew about before this trip were adversely affected by the recent severe storms, which meant some attractions like coastal forts and Gulf Islands National Seashore were closed, and state parks boasting of bright blue lakes had tornado damage and the lakes had turned brown with rainwater. Basically, we needed to do some quick research to figure out what else this area had to offer. I learned that the area between Mexico Beach and St. Marks is referred to as “Florida’s Forgotten Coast,” and was immediately sold on the area. It didn’t matter what was there, a phrase like “forgotten coast” implied that there would be no crowds, and we wanted to see the land that Florida had forgotten about. And so after a pleasant evening in Conecuh National Forest in Alabama, we made the journey South into Florida’s panhandle.
But first, it was time to accomplish a major milestone in our lives. For the past 10 years, we have been hiking to the highest point in every state. We started with an easier one, Mt Humphrey in Arizona, working to adjust to higher elevations. As we continued to train, each peak helped us to hone in our mountaineering skills and build up endurance for longer and harder hikes. Some peaks were more about learning how to drive up precarious mountain roads to reach trailheads or the peak itself. There were plenty of challenging moments when we felt like quitting, but we had an end goal in sight that helped us stay motivated to push through so that one day, we would be able to conquer it. And today was that day. After 10 years of training, we were finally ready to take on Florida’s highest point: Britton Hill, at 345 feet above sea level. All our training proved to be worth it when we finally reached the top, in possibly the first ever recorded summit without the use of oxygen!
Ok, all jokes aside. When we arrived at the parking lot for the high point (which is a small roadside park off the highway with some signs and a trail through the woods) we were met with the dreaded “No Dogs Allowed” sign. Are you kidding?! Charlotte has worked hard to reach the summit of 28 other high points, and you’re telling us she can’t enter this tiny roadside park just to say she’s done 29? Typically I’m the type of person that has to follow the rules so I don’t get in trouble/have people be mad at me (I call it my oldest child complex) but there was no way I wouldn’t let her walk 20 feet into the park to include her in our family picture at the summit. Curtis attempted some letterboxes, and we left immediately after.
Next, we made our way East and then South, taking highways in the most efficient manner to get us the most counties possible. We took FL-71 into the town of Port St Joe, where we navigated to the visitor center and lighthouse park to go for a little walk.
I feel like our time in this little town confirmed that we made the right decision to come to this area. Here we were, in a Florida beach town on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and it was so quiet. We were near the main road through town, but there was hardly any traffic. There were a couple other families out enjoying the park and the coast, but everyone was spread out and it was easy to find a quiet spot to sit and enjoy our lunch. There was also the lighthouse here, which sort of resembled a fire tower, and that made me realize that maybe the reason we like hiking to fire towers is because they’re like the lighthouses of the mountains. Or maybe we like lighthouses because they’re the fire towers of the beach? Either way, it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon, and we enjoyed our short time in Port St Joe.
We had thought that it would be fun to spend the night on the beach, but the nearby state park had rather high fees (and the beach wasn’t dog friendly) and none of the beachside spots that we were finding with our overnight parking/boondocking resources seemed legit. So instead we did what we are most comfortable with: We drove to Apalachicola National Forest and found a free dispersed site in the woods where we could be all alone. Because of all the recent rain, it was a bit trickier to find roads clear of mud or giant puddles, but we were stubborn enough to keep trying until we found a dry spot.
If you’re interested, click here to see all our other posts about hiking to state high points
