One Beach: Two humans

On our first day at Little Talbot Island State Park, we drove from the campground over to the beach section. At the very end of a long paved road was a boardwalk that led down to the beach at the very tip of the island. Numerous signs were erected to declare that swimming was not allowed, with information bits explaining why:

Apparently the beach drops precipitously into very deep water and there are extremely powerful currents in this area.

At any rate, we had no intention of swimming. We just wanted to walk the beach and look around. Little Talbot boasts of having five miles of unspoiled Atlantic beach. This is a fact. We could look north as far as we could see and could spy nothing created by humans save for a few of those warning signs. In addition, we saw no other people. No one else was beach combing, and no fishermen were along the shore with rods and reels. We had the place to ourselves.

One of the boardwalks across the dunes leading down to the Atlantic. These days, most beaches have such boardwalks to preserve the dunes. When I was a kid, they were rare sights and, of course, the dunes suffered for it, losing the vegetation that covered them and held them in place.

Mid-section of one of the dune fields. It's requested that people stay out of these places. Left only to the grasses, shrubs, and the animals who live there.

The wind was blowing extremely harshly while we were on the beach. The sand blasted away at our bare legs. It was actually quite uncomfortable.

The only "people" we saw. I took this telephoto shot of a cruise ship leaving its Jacksonville port. As advertised in those warning signs, the water does apparently drop off precipitously. Sharply enough to allow shore access to a ship of this size.

The wind was really howling on the beach, moving sand in uniform fashion.