DELAWARE SEASHORE STATE PARK (DE)

With our visit to Delaware Seashore State Park we have now camped at all 5 Delaware State Parks where you can overnight in an RV.

We visited three of the parks on our first visit back in 2018 and the other two on this visit in 2024. They all have water and electric on each site and this park even has sewer hookups.

They're not cheap though! There are surcharges for everything, starting with being an out of state resident, anywhere from $7-$11 a night. Then there is the weekend/holiday surcharge of $3-$8 for Friday/Saturday and Holidays. The last surcharge involves the time of the year, peak summer is up to $21 a night more than we paid for our winter season visit this time around.

With all things considered we paid $53 a night, only because I booked it 12-months ago at last years rate. If I wanted to add one night to our visit it would now cost us $63. The camp sites are nice at all five of the parks, but they're pricing them outside of our budget.

This could be our last visit to a Delaware State Park, but we've now seen them all anyway.

We've got an extra large site being on the end of the row.

During the afternoon the winds blow 23MPH-27MPH through the campground...

...but looking through our dinette window we have a pretty awesome view.

While it may look like the crane is holding up the bridge in the photo below I assure you that's not what's going on here.

They are actually just working on repairs to the seawall on both sides of the inlet. All of the loud pounding on the pilings is now done and they're just working on backfilling the walls. I'm sure glad we weren't here last week!

The Charles W. Cullen Memorial Bridge between the Indian River Inlet and the Atlantic Ocean.

All along the seawall on both sides of the inlet is a paved walkway for the fishermen to use.

We had a pretty nice sunset for our first night here, but I'm hoping for better before we leave.

The bridge looks very dramatic when it's all lit up at night.

MONDAY - Tricia woke at the crack of dawn to prepare for her morning walk.

Checking out our immediate area on a map, she noticed that just a short distance further down the dead-end road from the campground is the 1¼-mile long Burton Island Nature Preserve Trail.

The trailhead is about ¾-mile away from our campsite, just on the other side of a small Coast Guard Station and the rather large sized Indian River Marina. The total round trip distance for her walk will end up being just under 3-miles.

BURTON ISLAND NATURE PRESERVE TRAIL

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The 7:00AM sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean as seen from our front door.
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15-minutes later the skies looked entirely different.
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On the backside of the marina now, the scenery should start to look a lot different.
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This man-made dam serves as the entrance to the nature preserve.
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Now that's what I'm talking about! Nothing but nature.
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She's deep into the nature preserve now at 7:45AM, looking back at the bridge.
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A low elevated boardwalk keeps you from getting your feet wet.

After Tricia returned from her walk we decided to drive south into the small coastal town of Bethany Beach for breakfast and to take care of a few other pending chores.

If you're heading south from the north campground here at Delaware Seashore State Park
it will require you to drive over the Charles W. Cullen Memorial Bridge.

From up here on the bridge THE POD looks so small down there.

The first thing we neeed to do, even before breakfast, is to visit the Post Office here in town and pickup our General Delivery mail we sent here last week. It's been here waiting for us to pick it up for almost a week now. The Post Office said they would hold it for 30-days before returning it to the sender, but I'd rather get it in my hands sooner, rather than later.

And I would have had it in my hands by now if I would have realized today is Columbus Day and they're closed! Guess I'll have to make the 6¼-mile drive to the Post Office again tommorrow and try again.

After a delicious breakfast at Sunshine Crêpes in Bethany Beach we headed out looking for a grocery store. Just a few miles away were two grocery stores across the street from each other.

I still need 4-cans of "Mexican Style" Rotel Tomatoes to make a batch of my Key West Chili. You'd think one of these two supermarket chains would sell them.

We chose Weis Markets, a northeastern U.S. supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia to try first.

NOTE TO SELF: They don't sell it.

Across the street is the Giant Supermarket, also a northeastern chain, with stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC and West Virginia.

NOTE TO SELF: YES they do stock my Rotel Tomatoes!

We also compared prices on a few random items that we purchase frequently and found Giant Supermarket always had the better price and by a fairly decent margin.

Guess where we'll be shopping when given the choice?

From this distance THE POD blends in real nice with the neighbors
(from the South Campground looking north across the inlet).

On our way back to the North Campground we stopped to check out the South Campground, just in case there is a future visit, and took notes on which were the campsites best suited for ROVER and THE POD.

I just knew Mother Nature could improve on what see saw last night.

TUESDAY - When driving over the inlet bridge yesterday we noticed a protected pedestrian path on the oceanside of the bridge.

So rather than repeat the route of yesterday morning's walk, Tricia decided to try "The Bridge Walk" this morning.

Now that the summer season is over, in addition to the repairing of the seawall under the bridge
there seems to be a lot of beach replenishment work being done within the state park.

Here's a look at that protected pedestrian pathway on the bridge I spoke about.

It takes a lot of heavy equipment to move that much sand.

A Delaware sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

In case Tricia's morning walk wasn't enough for her, I booked a 3½-mile Ranger led hike for us later this morning. I originally bought two $6 tickets for the hike, but my right ankle still is not 100%. I didn't want to hold up the group waiting for me all the time, so I decided not to go.

The "group" ended up being the Ranger, Tricia and a local gentleman that has hiked the trail many times on his own. Still, they would have been waiting for me to catch up all the time, so I'm glad I chose not to try it.

The area around Fresh Pond was purchased by a developer and was all scheduled to be developed into another residential neighborhood, similiar to what happened just to the south at Salt Pond, when the State Park stepped in and purchased the land.

There was already a 1-mile long temporary roadbed laid out to gain access to the center of the property when the state park took ownership. That roadbed is now part of the muti-purpose trail known as the Prickly Pear Trail, thanks to the thorny cactus found along the roadsides.

The 8-foot wide trail is used for hiking, bicycling and seasonal horseback riding.

Today there was an archery hunt going on to control the deer population in this confined space.

FRESH POND HIKE

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This 1-mile long straight roadbed was the beginning of today's hike.
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Three sides of this natural area are surrounded by water.
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Along the trail were several different species of mushrooms.
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At the northern end of the trail you can see in the distance what the shoreline
could have looked like if the state park hadn't put a halt to the development.

While Tricia was hiking I took the opportunity to return to the Post Office and grab our mail.

I also checked out another local grocery chain before returning to the trailhead parking lot.

I'm glad I returned early, because Tricia's 2-hour hike took less than 1½-hour.

Now I'm really glad I didn't attempt the hike!

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