Location: Florida & Mississippi (although we just went to the Florida portion)
Entrance Fee: $8/car, good for 7 days
Type of trip: Day trip
Park Passport Stamps Available: 11
Recently, we headed over to Pensacola to attend a wedding of a high school friend. Although it's still in Florida (our home state), it's more than 300 miles from our home -- so we decided to make a weekend of it, and check out Gulf Islands National Seashore while we were visiting the area.
Gulf Islands National Seashore is the largest national seashore in the park system (who knew?) and protects parts of the natural barrier islands that form along the gulf coast of Florida and Mississippi. Unlike some National Parks, Gulf Islands has several distinct areas on many different islands. We visited the Fort Pickens, on the west end of Santa Rosa Island, as well as Fort Barrancas, which is in the Naval Air Station on the mainland part of Florida. We also drove through the Santa Rosa and Okaloosa areas, to the east of Pensacola Beach. The main visitor center, which we skipped on this trip, is located in the Naval Live Oaks area -- this area sounded intriguing, as it was one of the first federal tree areas in the United States, but unfortunately we ran out of time to visit.
We began our visit with a trip to Fort Pickens. The barrier islands of Florida were important from a defensive standpoint, as they block the entrance to Pensacola Bay. A trio of forts (Pickens, McRee and Barrancas) provided triangulated protection for this important shipping hub. During the Civil War, Ft. Pickens was defended by Union troops (and was one of only four forts in the south not to be captured by the Confederacy), while Confederate troops captured Ft. Barrancas over on the mainland. A battle broke out between the two forts in November 1861 which resulted in over 5000 shots/shells being fired into the forts, and ultimately led to the Confederacy withdrawing from Pensacola Bay.
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| Jackson by one of the cannon in Ft. Pickens |
Ft. Pickens is at the extreme western edge of Santa Rosa Island, about four miles from the entrance station to the National Seashore. Although much of Santa Rosa Island is developed, and has beach hotels, condos, restaurants and so on, by the time you drive the park road to Ft. Pickens, you are far, far away from all the commercialism.
The drive was particularly beautiful on this cold (50ish) winter morning, and I was not surprised to discover that there were not many other visitors in the park. The sand here is very fine and white, and in places it was drifting over the park road -- very closely resembling snow! We saw several RVs in the large campground (full of huge oak trees, it looks like this would be a great place to camp) but very few other people on the drive. We arrived at Ft. Pickens about half an hour before the visitor's center opened, so we grabbed a brochure and took the self-guided tour of the Fort.
The fort has been restored, but it was very interesting to walk through the battery and magazine areas (Jackson really enjoyed looking for and counting the semi-circle marks on the floor, used for turning cannon) and we even got to walk up on top of the fort walls and take a look out into the ocean.
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| One of the large guns at Fort Pickens |
Fort Pickens continued to be used after the Civil War -- in fact, it was not abandoned until after WWII, and concrete black-out batteries were installed in the early 20th century, so we took a look at that too.
By the time we completed our tour, the Visitor's Center had opened. Jackson was interested in completing the Junior Ranger activities, so we picked up a booklet. We spent a little time doing some of the activities in the booklet, and then headed over to the museum to watch the park video (a requirement for Jackson to complete his Junior Ranger badge). The museum is a short walk from the fort; the island sustained considerable damage from a hurricane a few years back, and so the current building is only temporary while repairs are completed on the permanent museum. The video was very interesting (a "push play when you're ready" type of thing) and told all about the natural life on the islands. Jackson was very intrigued by the information about the sea turtles.
To complete Jackson's Junior Ranger badge, we next had to head to the beach area to pick up 10 (or more) pieces of trash. Florida is well-known for its beaches, and although we have visited several beaches over the course of the last few years, this area has to be one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The sand is powdery-fine and white, and the water has a clear, emerald color; there are also seashells everywhere. The best part, however, is the lack of development in the area. Since it was a winter morning and quite chilly, we had the beach to ourselves.
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| Jackson sitting on a piece of driftwood on the beach at Gulf Islands National Seashore |
Sadly, it did not take us long to find 10 pieces of trash (including a sock...gross), so we headed back to the ranger station at the fort where Jackson was sworn in as a Gulf Islands National Seashore Junior Ranger. He wore his badge proudly for the rest of the weekend. At this point, we had to head back to our hotel to get ready for the wedding.
The next day, we drove over to the Naval Air Station to take a look at Fort Barrancas. Before visiting the fort, however, we stopped at the Naval Air Station Museum -- which has nothing to do with the Park Service -- but I have to mention how impressive this museum was! It had planes and spacecraft and everything a war buff could enjoy...and it was completely free. Definitely worth a stop.
Fort Barrancas is a smaller site than Fort Pickens, but definitely worth a look. There is no fee to enter Fort Barrancas. Although the current fort has been restored, there has been a fort on this site since 1763, when the British built a log fort. A Spanish fort followed about 30 years later. From the top of the fort, you can clearly see the entrance to Pensacola Bay between Santa Rosa Island and Perdido Key; this was obviously a strategic defensive location.
The current fort was built by slaves in the early part of the 19th century (and these men were craftsmen...it took millions of bricks, but only 65 men to build the entire masonry structure). We walked over the drawbridge and through all of the battery areas and even down the tunnel to the newer Water Battery. All in all, we spent only about 45 minutes at this fort. The park service does provided guided tours once a day, so if you time it right, that might be an even better way to learn about Fort Barrancas. There is also a small picnic area and small visitor's center/gift shop.
After our tour of Fort Barrancas, we had to point our car towards home. On the way home, we drove through the Santa Rosa and Okaloosa areas of the National Seashore. Although we didn't stop, I can definitely see how this area would be great for a day of beach-going, picnicking or looking for seashells. There were some places where the road was only about 50 feet from the emerald green water.
All in all, we really enjoyed our visit to Gulf Islands National Seashore. I've been to many beaches in Florida, and this was the one that really seemed to fit my image of what a "Florida beach" should look like. Campers would enjoy the campground and even hotel-goers can enjoy the seashore, as Pensacola Beach is only a few miles from the entrance to the National Seashore. I truly hope we are able to return one day and spend some more time on the beach....and maybe make it over to the Mississippi sections.
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