Fort St. Mark remnants/museum, St. Mark State Park, FL
[Carrabelle Day #6 2025-03-04 (Mon)]. Today we headed to the St.Mark’s area, which includes both the historic old Spanish port city/fortress and the surrounding National Wildlife Refuge. Since we needed a few things at the Wal-Mart in nearby Crawfordville we stopped there first.
St Mark’s the city was the site of a port and fort (San Marcos de Apalache) the Spanish established in the 1600’s. Located at the confluence of St Mark’s river and the Walkulla river where they flow into the Gulf of Mexico, it may be the 3rd oldest surviving settlement in North America. Today it is a very small city, mainly a marina and a few restaurants, grocery store, and a State Park at the site of the original fortress. We walked around both the city and the State Park.
St Mark’s City and State Park
Next we headed to St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. We visited here once last year and hoped to get photos of the historic lighthouse (again) as well as some wildlife. Wildfire smoke and clouds did not lead to good light for the lighthouse, but the sun did peek out a bit towards the end of our visit and we got a few nice wildlife shots.
At St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge
One last walk and in for the night!