Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL (10/15 - 10/28/23)

After being on east coast beaches for 2 1/2 months, we went west to the Gulf Coast in Alabama and Florida to check out those beaches and communities. In Alabama, we stayed at one of the best state parks we have ever camped. Gulf State Park was very large with hundreds of sites and full hookups.  If you love biking like we do, they also have 28 miles of paved and boardwalk trails that traverse the park and connect to nearby communities and the beach.

The park has several restaurants and bars right on the beach. There is also a Hilton hotel located here. On the other side of the park is a restaurant (Woodside) in the woods that has frequent live entertainment and is right on the trail.

Our full hookup site was huge and was near a lake and right off the bike trails.

Much of the trail system is built upon wooden decking mostly above the swamp areas to keep you safe and the the alligators off the trail.

The rest of the rails were paved and in great condition. Some parts of the trail were in semi-hilly wooded areas too.

I thought this was interesting rest stop. They built an overlook platform that had slide for an exit option.

This guy was just off the trail, but seemed content laying in the water while bikers took his picture.

There are a couple of pedestrian bridges that take you over a busy highway to get to the beach from the campground.

This view from the park trail shows Orange Beach in the background across the lake where you could ride the trails to visit many commercial establishments if you so desire.

This is one of the trails that takes you directly to the beach.

On the days we had sunny skies in the 80's, we hit the beach from the state park parking lot that was free for campers.

Another sunset view from one of the beachside restaurants located within the park.

From the pier you could see Gulf Shores off in the distance to the west.

In the nearby city of Pensacola at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, we took an afternoon to go watch the Blue Angels practice for the many air shows in which they perform every year. Now we head east along the panhandle to see more beach.