Gulf Islands National Seashore

Players:  Jenny, Zach & Jackson
Date of Visit:  January 2012
Website:  www.nps.gov/guis

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.

Jackson by one of the cannon in Ft. Pickens

Cumberland Island National Seashore

Players:  Jenny & some friends
Date of Visit:  January 2010
Website:  www.nps.gov/cuis
Location:  Georgia
Entrance Fee:  $4 per person plus $20 per person for the boat ride to the island
Type of Trip:  Daytrip from home
Park Passport Stamps Available:  1

Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia, just north of the Florida/Georgia border.  In addition to being an interesting natural environment, it was also the winter retreat of many wealthy northerners around the turn of the century – including members of the Carnegie family from Pennsylvania.  Many ruins are still standing on the island for you to explore.  Visiting Cumberland Island is a bit of a challenge.  You either need a boat, or a ticket to ride on the park concessionaire’s boat.  The park concessionaire’s boat costs $20 per person to ride (round-trip) and tickets must be purchased in advance.  We were visiting in the off-season, so were able to show up at the Visitor’s Center early and purchase day-of tickets that way.  However, in the busy season, I would recommend calling ahead to reserve tickets.  Twice a month, tours of the Plum Orchard house (built by the Carnegie family) are also available.  We happened to be visiting on a day this tour was offered, and so we decided to go for it.

Dungeness Ruins on Cumberland Island

 

Parks Visited as a Child, Part 1

In this post and the next one, I'm going to outline the National Park Service Units I have only visited as a child with my family.  I hope to re-visit most of these sites some day as my memories of many of them are quite hazy.

Antietam National Battlefield
Players:  Jenny, Steve, Carole & Jenny's sisters
Date of Visit:  Summer 1991?
Website:  www.nps.gov/anti
Location:  Maryland
Entrance Fee:   $4 per person or $6 per family
Type of Trip:  Day trip as part of Eastern US Epic Road Trip
Park Passport Stamps Available:   2
Review:  Antietam is the site of the single bloodiest battle in United States history, with over 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing after the battle on September 17, 1862.  Honestly, I don't remember too much about this park.   My dad, a history teacher for many years, had a great time traipsing around the battlefield and showing us different things.  I must have been about 9 or 10 when we went, and the one thing that stuck out for me was walking the Bloody Lane and thinking about how many soldiers it would take to fill up the sunken road with bodies.  I believe we also did a driving tour of the battlefield, which the website indicates is still available.  I look forward to going back some day to do the walking tours via podcast!

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