The first sight you encounter as you drive off the south end of Amelia Island is the Big Talbot Island State Park fishing bridge across Nassau Sound. If fishing is your sport, a quick stop in the adjacent bait shop will soon put you on your way to catching your own dinner. Nature watchers cannot fail to enjoy the view as you drive across the bridge, with gulls and osprey in the air, egrets and herons along the banks and just maybe a dolphin or two swimming by.

Maybe by now you want to stretch your legs and take a little walk. If this interests you, a number of hiking options await you. On the east side of A1A on Big Talbot Island you will notice a parking and picnic area and two additional access points a little further where you can park your car and walk off into the woods. These trails on Big Talbot Island are short ones that in a few minutes will take you to the edge of the island, where the naturally eroded coastline offers a stunning vista of downed trees and black clay tidepools to explore.

If you like fishing or nature watching but would like to get a bit of exercise while you are at it, give kayaking a try. South of Big Talbot Island is tiny Long Island, the home of Kayak Amelia (www.kayakamelia.com) on the right side of A1A. If you stop by most days between 9 AM and 5 PM, the outfitters will happily rent you a kayak, provide you with a life vest, paddle and map, advise you about tides and weather conditions and send you on your way. For those who are more comfortable with a guided kayak tour, these are available by calling Kayak Amelia at 904-251-0016 to book a trip in advance.

Kayak Amelia offers kayak rentals and guided tours of area waterways.
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If a long hike sounds more up your alley, keep going another few miles to Little Talbot State Park. Ask the ranger for the hiking trail map, park your car and start to walk. Don't forget to bring drinking water and bug spray as you head off on this nearly five-mile hike. You will soon be surrounded by a maritime forest where a canopy of old magnolia and live oak trees shelters you from the sun, and sandy soil cushions your steps. Leaving the forest, the trail enters a world of high coastal sand dunes replete with the tracks of gopher tortoises, raccoons and bobcats, before suddenly confronting you with a view of an untouched beach, with no human structures anywhere in sight. For the next mile or so, this remarkable beach will be your path as you complete the loop trail and head back to the parking lot and your car.

Or maybe your goal, instead, is to explore historic Fort George Island, a right turn off A1A a few miles south of Little Talbot. There's plenty to see on this island, and with a picnic lunch in hand this five miles can easily turn into a day. The Fort George loop road is equally friendly to bicycles or sightseeing motorists.

Once you enter the loop road, bear right at the "Y" and soon you will come to the historic St. George Episcopal Church and a number of old southern-style homes, built when this road was a remote fringe of northern Florida. As you drive or bicycle the road, keep an eye out for wildlife. The salt marshes are a great place to look for herons, egrets and osprey year-round, pink spoonbills in the summer and white pelicans in the winter.

Before long you will see the Ribault Clubhouse, a Depression-era structure that has been renovated by the State Park system and now contains a free museum that interprets the multi-dimensional story of Ft. George Island and a National Park Service operated gift and book store. If you want a more in-depth look at the natural and human history of the area, ask to borrow a free interpretive CD that you can play in your car as you continue on the loop road.

At the furthest point on the road, you'll find the National Park Service operated Kingsley Plantation house, garden and outbuildings. The partially restored slave quarters here are made of oyster shell from the much earlier Indian middens that also dot the island. The view of the Ft. George River from behind the house, with its salt marshes, birdlife and passing pleasure boats, is a great place to eat your picnic lunch, before continuing on the loop road back to A1A.

For the more adventurous day-trippers, there is now a unique way to view Ft. George Island. Ecomotion Tours, a new State Park concession, offers tours of the island by individual high-tech Segway human transporters that are controlled by your body movements. Reserve a spot on one of these tours (904-251-9477 or www.ecomotiontours.com) and, with a bit of training, you will soon be standing on your Segway and gliding quietly along the trails while learning more the nature and history of Ft. George Island.