Our last stop, Gulf State Park

Located in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this state park is the best of all of the places we stayed.  Each site has water, electric, and sewer and the paved sites include a grill and picnic table.  However, it is also the most expensive place we stayed, too, because there is an 11% lodging tax and a 15% resort tax.  But, there are miles, and miles of paved biking paths.

Notice the gator on the post has been decorated with Mardi Gras beads

 We took some of the trails on Saturday morning to get some beignets, which were a good treat, but not as good as the ones from Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans.

Another trail we took ended at the beach, and you can see in the picture below, there were very few people on the beach.

We are going to cut our trip short by a couple of days because the weather forecast is for severe weather Monday including thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes.

For your entertainment, I am passing along a video that a friend of mine sent me since we have seen so many alligators.

Gator vs. Truck 

Thanks for traveling with us!

Fort Pickens

We left Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park to continue on to Fort Pickens which is part of the National Park system because it has been preserved as a national seashore.  Fort Pickens was a Union fort during the civil war and never saw any defensive action after that.

The cannon you see in the picture below fired 15" cannon balls.

Notice all of the arches built in the fort that were laid with brick.  All of the brick in the fort, exterior and interior, was built with slave labor brought here from New Orleans, because the slaves in New Orleans were much more experienced at masonry work.  So, the local slaves were used for other tasks. 

Even though it is quite cool here, 41 degrees in the morning, we rode our bikes every day about 8-10 miles.  We rode past this fishing pier where many people were fishing for sheepshead because the fish were 'running'.  It looked like a great opportunity for many people to get their lines tangled.

On the bike path we took, we crossed over a small bridge and were able to see two large turtles.

Then we walked on the beach that was deserted.

We saw several ospreys and their nests.

We are leaving for Gulf State Park tomorrow.

On towards St. Joseph Peninsula SP

Thursday, March 8

When we left Manatee Springs SP, we thought we would look for another Rails-to-Trails biking trail since we have had such good luck and a wonderful time biking these trails.  Well, we found one about two thirds of the way to our next stop of St. Joseph Peninsula SP.  This trail was called the Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Trail.  Back in the day, the train hauled freight from Tallahassee, but primarily cotton, from the markets in Tallahassee down to the bay town of St. Marks to be shipped to the appropriate mills.  This was also the first paved Rails-to-Trails trail in Florida.  We started at the Wakulla Station trail head that was about seven miles from St. Marks.  The change in elevation was probably less than two feet in that seven mile stretch.  As you can see by how Bonnie is dressed, it was quite chilly.

We arrived in St. Marks conveniently at lunch time, so we went to a small seaside grill for lunch which included an oyster Po Boy and fries.

Not a bad view for lunch!

After lunch, we rode back to the Wakulla Station, loaded our bikes and continued on to St. Joseph Peninsula SP, checked in, found our campsite, and enjoyed a few peanut M&M's!  We will be here a few more nights, biking, walking on the beach and exploring.  We have the Gulf of Mexico on one side and St. Joseph Bay on the other.  Gulf view

St. Joseph Bay view (taken through a UV filter)

Continuing further north

After leaving Lake Manatee SP, we looked to see if there were any Rails-to-Trails biking trails on our way to our next stop, Manatee Springs SP.  As it turned out, we were driving right past one called Withlacooche Bay Trail.  The round trip was 12.5 miles so we stopped at the trail head parking lot, unloaded our bikes, and took off on this beautiful, ten foot wide paved trail that ran right beside the Cross Florida Barge Canal.  This seldom used trail was delightful to ride because we saw less than six people in the whole distance.

 

Along the way, there were very nice covered picnic pavilion overlooking the canal.

The trail ended at Withlacooche Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.

   

We continued on to Manatee Springs SP the morning of Tuesday, March 6, and took our bikes to another Rails-to-Trails bike trail, the Nature Coast State Trail.  The section we rode today was just a little over 12 miles, but the most scenic part of it was crossing the Suwanee River over an old trestle.  Yes, we were way down upon the Suwanee River.  (hmm, we could make a song out of that).

We went back to the campground and took a short walk to see the actual spring fed pond of Manatee springs.  The light part in the water you see in the pictures below is incredibly clear and about 25 feet deep.

The spring water then flows out into the Suwanee River which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

We saw a few snakes, harmless brown water snakes, as well as a couple of manatees that came upstream in the Suwanee River.  We then returned to our campsite to fix dinner and as I was getting the grill ready, the local deer came up very close to check out what I was doing.

The Rails-to-Trails biking trails that we have discovered in Florida are in such good shape.  They are clean, paved, somewhat isolated, and we even saw a guy on a four wheeler pulling a high powered blower to keep the trail free of leaves, branches, etc.