205. Gulf Islands National Seashore

February 4-14, 2026

Fort Pickens Campground was an easy drive, five-hundred miles from Savannah to Gulf Islands National Seashore. I left at 7AM and arrived in Gulf Breeze, the small town near the entrance of the park, around 4PM. There’s a change from eastern to central time along the way, so it was a ten hour drive. In Gulf Breeze, I stopped at CVS to pick up prescriptions, then shopped in a Publix Supermarket to replenish my store of food. I arrived at the campground about a half hour before sunset and quickly set up “camp.” Honest truth, setting up camp takes only minutes. I make sure the van is level, put my electronic “rodent repellent” devices under the van, and plug in the 30A electric cord. The repellent devices emit an ultrasonic sound, something humans cannot hear, but it is a sound that irritates rodents, keeping them away. Since I began using them a couple years ago, I have not had a mouse in my van with one exception, and ironically, that occurred on a night when I forgot to put the devices in place …

… I was camping at Jacob Lake, a national forest campground about an hour north of Grand Canyon North Rim. I was awakened around 4AM by a sound, turned on my flashlight, and saw a little mouse on the floor near the heater. I got up and the mouse scurried towards the back of the van. I opened the rear doors and the side sliding door. I imagine the mouse ran out, as I never saw it again. An odd thing that happened, however, is that I heard what I thought was a fly buzzing around. That’s not unusual in itself. Flies get into the van sometimes. Then there was a second one, a second buzzing sound. Then I became aware that it was not a fly, but rather it was one of the pesky little yellow jackets, followed by the second one. I had no idea that these critters would be flying around at night, and I wondered if they might have been attracted by the bright lights I had turned on in the ceiling of my van. I closed the doors quickly, fearing that if two bees had arrived more could be attracted. I was able to swat one of the bees dead. I did not know where the second one was hiding. It showed up hours later when I was driving, but I was able to deal with it as I drove. Always keep the fly swatter handy when driving 😊.

Gulf Islands was the 6^th most visited facility in the National Park Service system in 2024. I am not sure what time of year is the busiest, but my guess is it is not in the January-March timeframe. I began coming here in January 2022. I have returned in January 2023, March 2024, and January 2025. It has never seem all that busy based on traffic along the eight-mile road through the park, though the campground has seemed nearly full the times I have been here. The beaches have been nearly deserted each time I have visited, too. I imagine in hot weather things pick up as people want to enjoy the beach and the cooling effects of the water.  

The average temperatures in January are in the low 60s daytime and low 40s nighttime. It’s been very comfortable most of the time, but there have been some very cold experiences. The most extreme was last year when “… on January 21, 2025, a historic winter storm delivered a record-shattering 7.5 to 8.9 inches of snow to the Pensacola area, including Pensacola Beach, far surpassing the previous 1895 record of 3 inches.” It was 15 degrees, 8 degrees with the windchill, on the morning of January 22. Despite the cold, I had to rise early and walk to the beach to see the blend of sand and snow. The board walk was covered and my footsteps were the first of the day.

On this trip, my first morning here was cold, 34 degrees with a strong wind, feeling like 24. I have been keeping an eye on the weather here the past few weeks in anticipation of my arrival. Like in the northeast and Savanah, it has been unseasonably cool here the past month, but it looks like a change to normal weather has arrived, as it’s been in the 60s during the day and 40s overnight since I arrived here. I welcome the warmth, have been enjoying the change from wearing several layers to shorts and t-shirts at least part of the day. Now that I have been here a week, I can say the weather has been very good. It’s been in the high 60s the past several days.

I was here at Fort Pickens for three nights beginning 2/4/25, Wednesday-Friday, then I moved to Big Lagoon State Park for two nights, Saturday-Sunday. It is an hour’s drive from here, on the other side of Pensacola Bay. I went there because there is a restriction on the number of consecutive nights, fourteen, one can stay here. You have to leave for two nights, but then you can come back for another fourteen.

I returned here Monday, beginning a fourteen-day stretch on a reservation I had made way back in October. After the two weeks, I will head back to Big Lagoon again for two nights, then I come back here for another two weeks, a reservation I made recently.

An interesting thing happened at Big Lagoon. I was doing a walk in the evening around the campground. I passed a campsite that had a Pleasure Way van and a pickup truck, both with Minnesota license plates. I stopped to say hi to the four people who were sitting outside. It turns out one of the couples, Carrie and Tom, who owned the van, had just arrived Saturday, too. They had come from Fort Pickens for a two night stay. They were going to return to Fort Pickens Monday, just like me. The other couple were actually visiting them from another campground, Gulf State Park in Alabama, about an hour east. We laughed about the coincidence of our situations, using Big Lagoon as a two night stay so we could maximize our plans for Fort Pickens. Ironically, they were staying at site #75, which is the site I would be staying at when I returned there in two weeks.

On Monday, when I returned to Fort Pickens, we learned that our campsites backed up to each other. What are the chances of that happening? Probably slim, but strange things happen on the road when traveling. We ventured into a talk about bicycles, as they ride, too. Tom saw my Salsa (Salsa is the name of a bike manufacturer) and he mentioned how he used to have a Specialized Roubaix. I told him I used to have one, too, a 2006 model. He said that’s about when he bought his, a black one. Mine had been black, too. It was another interesting coincidence.

I mentioned the nice weather, and I’ve been riding my bike in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. It’s been sunny, it’s been great fun. I have been riding that eight-mile stretch of road, doing two or three loops of it in various ways, riding two to three hours most times. At Big Lagoon, there was a nice road to ride, too. The park road is only 2.5 miles long, but it’s a good road, very little traffic. My mind is such that I can ride back and forth doing these out and back loops for a long time. Simple pleasures.

About the birds, in the first week and a half here, my Bird app Merlin has detected sixty-two different bird species, including a Bald Eagle and a Great Horned Owl. The nests for these two are visible from a trail. I saw the eagle one day.

It’s a lot of fun listening to the choir of winged creatures while being in the campground, walking along the trails through the small forest, and the boardwalks across sand dunes to the beach. One day there was a large flock of white-winged birds moving about on Pensacola Bay. I was riding my bike and stopped when I saw them. There had to be at least two hundred birds. They would alternate between sitting in the water and flying up a few feet in the air, swirling more so than flying any significant distance, then settling back on the water, repeating the process again and again. Merlin identified their call, Bonaparte's Gull. I had never heard of them before.

Another evening at sunset, a Great Blue Heron flew past me from behind and landed about twenty yards ahead of me. It seemed to have no fear of me, letting me walk close to it and take photos as much as I wanted. It was as if it wanted to be there, right at this spot. It had miles of beach that had no people on it, yet it landed right near me. It seemed to welcome me ... in a friendly way ...

The sunrises and sunsets here are spectacular. It’s a novel thing here that both the sunrise and sunset are visible over a body of water, the Gulf of Mexico. It’s possible because the shoreline that runs more in a east-west direction, along latitude, rather than south-north direction, along longitude.

In general, the beaches are sparsely occupied here. I find it interesting to stop and talk with the occasional person I come across. Everyone has a story. Most people I meet are not local, though some are. I met a guy fishing the other day before sunrise. He was setting up six poles, each one anchored in a type of stand that holds the rod up. He can sit in a chair and monitor each one. They are spaced out about ten yards from each other along the beach. He wheeled out all his equipment in a cart that had large balloon wheels that made it easier to move over the sand. He said it weighed about 120 pounds with all of his gear.

One evening near sunset a couple passed me on the boardwalk as I was walking to the beach. When I arrived there a couple minutes later, they were walking back from the beach already. The guy explained to me that there was “a big cloud in the way.” There was an inference that the sunset was not worth seeing as a result.

I found that behavior, leaving the beach because of the clouds, to be odd. I disagree with it. You don’t have to see the sun go down in order to have a great sunset and a fantastic sunset experience. Yes, it’s nice to see a big red ball set over the water and then have all that vibrant color reflected in the clouds. It’s more dramatic that way and certainly makes for great photos. But there’s a lot more going on besides the dramatic.

Waves. Seashells and feathers. Driftwood. Pools of water. Sandcastles. Birds. Crabs. Other people.

Waves also bring sound, rhythmic calm. They seem infinite. They come from the wind, which in turn is due to changes in air pressure from heat energy radiating off the surface, which has as its source energy from the Sun, ninety-three million miles away. There area a lot of connections involving much of Nature.

One can also contemplate how one’s own spirit is one with the environment. The waves contribute to an environment where reflection is accentuated, opening channels within the brain that were otherwise not available, not visible to the inner eye. It brings beauty within, awareness, a type of assuredness and knowing. The moment is ripe.

As it turned out, there was quite a sunset despite the clouds that night. Just before it dipped below the horizon, a big red ball appeared ... that guy missed it ...

It's interesting too to observe others as they walk the beach. I imagine each person roaming the sandy beach is in a reflective mood, thinking about some wonders of life as, like me, they watch the waves, sunrises, sunsets, etc.

I had an interesting crab experience on evening ... walking the beach near sunset, I saw a hole in the sand that looked unusual. I could not see deeply into it, and I naively thought a person had dug it and put some shells there. I don't have a photo of that. I reached to get a shell, and something moved and then quickly jumped out! It certainly startled me. A Ghost Crab! As I gave it distance it crawled back into its hole.

I go for walks at night, too, along the park road. In the early evening Orion has been high in the sky, surrounded by other stars, constellations of which I cannot name. It’s a spectacular skyscape. The road is about a quarter mile from the beach. The waves are loud, seemingly as loud, maybe louder, than they do at water’s edge. I don’t know why they see louder, but I like the sound as I walk under the stars at night.

There is much more to do here in addition to the beach. There are a few trails and the park road is great for cycling. I never find myself bored or out of options for something to do.

There is a great deal of sand. The island is covered with it. There are lots of sand dunes, ranging up to about twenty feet high in some places. Due to the high winds that are often present, the sand at times accumulates on the roads. They have a payloader that occassionally has to move the sand, as if if were snow that had drifted across the road ...

More pics from the trails

I have started looking at options for summer travel. I am looking at possible volunteer positions at a few national parks and recreation areas. I would want to find something that has a great deal of opportunity immersed in nature, that has good roads for bike riding, good hiking trails, and meaningful engagement. I am as much interested in working in a visitor center engaged in educational activities as with being a campground host. I am looking at Chippewa National Forest Visitor Center in Minnesota, Little Bighorn National Historic Site in Montana, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and some campgrounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina. Or I might just stay in New England at places in VT, NH, and ME. Maybe Quebec. Maybe I just don't know, plant seeds and see what happens ...

All fun and games. Well, mostly … 😊

Previous Post: 204. Talahi Island, Georgia