Sea turtle nesting season in St. Johns County runs from May 1 through October 31. Each of the seasonal beach rules that ends with it applies only at night: the grill and fire-pit limit, the lighting standards for existing beachfront homes, and the evening closing of the county's vehicle gates.
On the 8.9 miles of Ponte Vedra Beach between the Duval County line and the Guana Tolomato Matanzas Reserve, November looks different only after sunset. The morning walk at Mickler's Landing runs on the same rules it did in July. A Saturday-night cookout on the sand does not.
The Grill Window Reopens
During nesting season, St. Johns County's beach rules ban fires and grills on the beach between 7:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. Starting November 1, self-contained fire pits and grills with lids are allowed in those hours again.
The rest of the rule stays the same. Open fires are still banned on all county beaches, in every season. Any fire has to be self-contained and leave the way it came. The county also spells out what to do with charcoal: take the coals with you. Coals, briquettes and embers can't go in beach trash cans or be left on the sand.
So from November 1, a lidded grill or an enclosed fire pit after dark is allowed, as long as you leave nothing behind. A driftwood bonfire is still banned, just as it was in August.
Porch Lights Facing the Ocean
The second change mostly matters to anyone with a house on the dune line. Section 4.01.09 of the St. Johns County Land Development Code sets standards for exterior lights on existing structures "during Night hours during Nesting Season each year." In that window, no light source or reflective fixture surface may be visible from the beach. Lighting the beach surface directly or indirectly is prohibited, and fixtures have to be fully shielded from the beach.
The code tells owners of non-compliant fixtures to fix them "from May 1st to October 31st each year," for example by repositioning the fixture so the bulb can't be seen from the sand. As written, those seasonal standards cover nighttime during nesting season. The same code has separate lighting provisions for new construction, so the seasonal calendar isn't the whole lighting picture for every property.
This is general information, not legal advice. If a lighting or construction question affects your property, read the code language directly and confirm with the county or a qualified professional.
The Gate Rule Stops at the County's Driving Beaches
The third nighttime change gets misread most often in Ponte Vedra. From November 1 through April 30, the county leaves its beach vehicle gates open overnight unless there's a significant weather or tidal event. From May through October, those gates close at 7:30 p.m. and reopen at 8 a.m. Pedestrian access stays open 24 hours a day all year.
None of that opens Ponte Vedra Beach to cars. The county's beach access listing shows 12 miles of driving beach and eight vehicle ramps countywide, and none are in Ponte Vedra. At Mickler's Landing, the beach access is for emergency vehicles only. The overnight gate schedule matters to people who drive onto the county's designated driving beaches. In Ponte Vedra, you still get onto the sand on foot.
Dog rules don't change with the season either. The county's beach rules allow dogs year-round only on a leash, in the water too, and owners must pick up after them.
| Rule | May 1 to Oct. 31 | Nov. 1 to Apr. 30 |
|---|---|---|
| Lidded grills and self-contained fire pits | Prohibited 7:30 p.m. to 8 a.m. | Allowed after dark |
| Open fires | Prohibited | Prohibited |
| Seasonal lighting standards, existing beachfront structures | Apply at night | Seasonal window over |
| County vehicle gates | Closed 7:30 p.m. to 8 a.m. | Open unless weather or tides close them |
| Public driving on Ponte Vedra Beach | Not permitted | Not permitted |
| Dogs | Leashed only | Leashed only |
| Pedestrian access | 24 hours | 24 hours |
Why the Night Mattered on This Stretch
The rules were written for nesting turtles, and this stretch hosted plenty of them this summer. Mickler's Landing Turtle Patrol, a volunteer group walking 4.6 miles of beach between Sawgrass Beach Club and the GTM Reserve under FWC Marine Turtle Permit #029, posted 154 nests as of August 12, 2026. That count included 148 loggerhead, 3 green and 3 leatherback nests, with no Kemp's ridley nests. Volunteers also logged 128 loggerhead false crawls, where a turtle came ashore and went back without nesting. The tally is an August snapshot, not a season total, and the season runs for more than two months after it.
For scale, the Ponte Vedra Recorder reported that St. Johns County recorded 999 nests countywide in 2025, a slight increase over 2024. Patrol volunteers had counted 154 nests on one 4.6-mile piece of Ponte Vedra by mid-August, a stretch smaller than a single neighborhood's worth of beach.
The sand those turtles nested in is also new. St. Johns County lists the Ponte Vedra Beach Restoration Project as complete. The county secured permits to place about two million cubic yards of sand from the Duval County line south to the GTM Reserve. Plans for the project included planting sea oats and other dune vegetation, plus post-and-rope fencing and signs to keep foot traffic out of sensitive areas. The Recorder also reported that the county scheduled beach tilling in Ponte Vedra April 6 through 9 as part of post-restoration permit monitoring, work meant to keep the sand suitable for nesting.
The rope fencing and dune plantings are part of the restoration project, not the nesting-season calendar, so nothing in the November 1 switch removes them.
November on the Sand, Mostly in the Morning
Evening hours loosen in November, but the month's organized beach calendar is almost all early mornings, much of it run by the GTM Research Reserve:
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 a.m. Guided Exploration Hike at GTM, meeting at the Trailhead Pavilion west of Guana Dam.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m. Family Seining, a guided program on Guana Lake.
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. Beach Exploration walk at the Reserve.
- Thursday, Nov. 26, 8:30 a.m. The First Coast Turkey Trot 5K and one-mile run start at Mickler's Landing Beachfront Park on Thanksgiving morning.
- Saturday, Nov. 28, 9 a.m. GTM's monthly beach cleanup, with the Ponte Vedra Visitor Center as one of two meeting points.
For Thanksgiving morning, keep the lot size in mind. The county lists 202 parking spaces at Mickler's Landing, including 7 ADA spaces, plus a Mobi-Mat at the beach entry. Farther south, the GTM accesses have about 70 spaces at the northern access, 80 at the middle, 94 at the southern ADA access and about 60 at the southern Exxon access.
One date off the sand: First Coast Cultural Center's Holiday Shoppes market runs Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 6000B Sawgrass Village Circle. The center describes its vendors as local, national and international. On the 14th, you can go from seining on Guana Lake in the morning to a gift market in Sawgrass Village before lunch.
If your plans for the beachfront involve lighting changes, an outdoor living project, or knowing how dune-line rules shape a property's use, Jean Pickett can help you sort out the county framework and connect you with the right professionals. Schedule a free consultation to talk through your Ponte Vedra Beach home before next May 1.
