The morning of the Virginia Tech – Florida State game, we found ourselves with hours to kill. We had to check out by 11 am, and kickoff was scheduled for 8 pm. We grabbed breakfast at Cracker Barrel and looked for stores that we don’t have in Augusta. After a quick trip to World Market, I pulled up Yelp and Trip Advisor to find something to do. We decided to check out St Marks Lighthouse, about 40 minutes south of Tallahassee. The drive is pretty easy and is mostly state highway.
Address and Location
You’ll find St Marks Lighthouse in the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. Navigate to Lighthouse Road (CR 59) in Tallahassee. The lighthouse is at the end of the road in the park.
Cost
Admission is $5 per car. Memberships are also available.
What to do
Our first stop was the Visitors’ Center to check out everything to do. The main attraction is the lighthouse, but St. Marks is also a National Wildlife Refuge. You can hike, boat, and fish, amongst other activities. The Visitors’ Center has a very small museum with examples of wildlife found in the refuge. They also sell National Wildlife Refuge and American lighthouse passports.
We hopped back in the car and drove down to the lighthouse. The keeper’s house is currently closed for renovation and is slotted to reopen later in Fall 2018. Because of this, we just explored the property. The light sits right on the Gulf of Mexico and offers amazing views. You can also launch boats into the Gulf from there.
The lighthouse sits at the end of the main road through the refuge. The drive has tons of camping, fishing, and picnicking areas, so you can stop all along the drive for more views. We stopped at a few of these to check out their views.
Have you ever visited St Marks Lighthouse?
I have actually never seen a lighthouse in person and I really need to change that!