RV travels with Rich and Judy: Fort Pickens National Park, Gulf Breeze, Florida February 24

Ship in Pensacola Bay

We had heard about Fort Pickens from some folks at Torreya and decided to give it a try, since the weather was iffy at best. It was a short drive from Blackwater River, so we stopped to get groceries in Pensacola on the way. The beaches here are the quintessential white sand and the water clear and several shades of blue.

The campground is very crowded, open, and depending upon the amount of rain and the tides, many sites are under water except for the raised parking area. The frequent unexpected high wind gusts make it impossible to have an awning out for shade (one unsuspecting camper had left his awning out and when he returned a few minutes later a gust had twisted it up beyond repair) and there are very few trees in the campground. While we would ignore any single drawback (in our view), all of them together are more than we want to put up with. The park is, however, well-loved by folks who like having lots of people around and spend most of their time out shopping, sightseeing, visiting friends, or just hidden away in their RV.

Drive along the beach

While we were at the park, Rich tried a couple of days of fishing and I took a couple of hikes. Rich caught no fish, but I had a good time hiking. Didn't see much in the way of animals, but osprey and great blue herons abound in this area and I got some nice photos of young herons on the nest. Although they are not ready to fly, they are already the size of their parents, and the young birds may be seen standing in the nest atop snags all through the area. It was quite a sight.

Wet and crowded campground

The Pensacola Naval Air Station is located just across the bay from the barrier island on which we camped and during one of my walks, I watched a helicopter pilot practicing hovering. We also saw and heard AWACS (weather plane), numerous fighter jets, and, during one of the Mardi Gras parades held in the area, two little biplanes flew over.

We did find a wonderful Asian grocery in Pensacola where I found the Jasmine tea brand I love and I bought four pounds of it while we were there.

That electric hookup looks scary!

We spent several hours visiting Fort Pickens, which is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay, Florida and its navy yard. The park, built on the barrier island across the bay from Pensacola, is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore which stretches 160 miles across three states. The barrier islands were created from white sand carried seaward by rivers draining from the Appalachian Mountains. The sand is what is left of the granite rocks that broke off a mountain and tumbled into a river. Many thousands off years later, all that is left of the granite are small granules of quartz, which eventually travel downstream to the barrier islands.

Young great blue heron on next

American Indians inhabited the area, then the Europeans came and with them years of struggle for territorial control. In 1828, after Florida and Mississippi became part of the United States, the first federal tree farm was developed at Naval Live Oaks Area. The sole purpose of this tree farm was cultivating live oaks to be used in shipbuilding.

The US began fortifying the nearby area against foreign invasion in 1829. During the Civil War, the Union Army staged the capture of New Orleans from this fort. As time passed and new weapons emerged, the fort became obsolete and after World War II, the military eventually abandoned the forts.

Osprey

Fort Pickens is quite different from most of the other forts we have visited, but of course, it was built much later. It is a very large structure and, as a result of the new weapons that were developed, there is a second large structure in the center of the original that held two “disappearing” guns in 1898. These 12-inch rifles as they were called, were on carriages, and after shooting a 1,070 pound shell at a target 8 miles away, the carriage would allow the rifle to disappear below the wall of the fort. From the photographs we saw, it appears that it took about 18 soldiers to load these large guns.

Pelican

The tour of the fort is self-guided and a video at the beginning of the tour gives a nice over-view of the history. We spent a couple of hours going through the fort and nearby museum and enjoyed the entire experience.

Now that the weather has begun to moderate a bit, we're going to head west – first stop is our old standby, Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana.