Cozy Rosie: Gulf State Park - Gulf Shores, Alabama (September 2021)

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Gulf State Park - Gulf Shores, Alabama (September 2021)

One of the things that stood out in our minds about camping here last time was the heat. We camped in Alabama’s Gulf State Park during September eight years ago and Rosie’s air conditioner could not keep up. (Rosie is our Airstream trailer's name.) It was hot in the park and hotter inside Rosie during our previous visit to this campground.

Sign heading into the park

Pointing the way to the campground

Things were different this time in that we were in our new Rosie with dual air conditioners. We were confident we could deal with hot temperatures and having a second AC unit helped beat the heat.

Rosie in the campground

We didn’t escape all of the weather woes this time. We simply traded heat for rain. There were a few breaks in the rain storms the first couple of days that allowed us to walk around the park or to ride our bikes. The rains thinned out by the third day and that allowed us to explore the park.

Bike path in the park

While riding our bikes on one of the boardwalk trails, several other hikers or bikers started telling us about “Lefty.” We pieced together that Lefty was an alligator with up to three baby gators.

We found that some people on the trails were very willing to share their “best guess” directions to Lefty’s favorite water hole. Most of these well meaning directions conflicted. Finally, we noticed a groups of about a dozen bicycles parked along a bridge. Yes, that crowd found Lefty and guided us to her. We saw Lefty and several baby gators!

Baby gator with "Lefty" keeping an eye on him

There are multiple trail boardwalks through marsh areas and spanning fingers of the lakes and creeks. We came across a raccoon while crossing a trail bridge across part of the lake. We backed away to give him plenty of room to escape. It was interesting to watch the raccoon run to flee us and our bicycles.

Unusual road sign!

Another sign in the park

While riding our bikes on a trail, we noticed an eight foot gator floating in a creek beside the path keeping up with us. We decided not to stop to take a picture because gators move much faster than most people imagine.

Something significant happened while we camped in Gulf State Park. We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We marked the day by looking at our wedding photos and eating a seafood dinner.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

There were multiple loops in the campground.
Most sites could be classified as "full sun" probably the result of too many hurricanes hitting the area. Only a few had shade.
Most sites had some space on both sides
Our site was a back-in
Our site was paved with asphalt and was level
Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
Our site had a water connection
Our site had a sewer connection
The trash dumpsters for all 490+ campsites in this campground were at the entrance to the park. It was too far to walk and that meant a nightly trip in the truck to the dumpsters
There were multiple bathhouses in the campground. Some were open while others were closed. There were several “porta-potties” in front of the closed bathhouses. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check the conditions of the bathhouses nor the “porta-potties”
The park provided good WiFi service. We measured the download speed as 32 mbs
AT&T provided 3 bars of 4G voice and data service over our campsites
We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Circle, Comet, Court, Cozi, Grit, LAFF and ME-TV
There were restaurants and shopping near the campground
The park has a great swimming pool, tennis courts and multiple playgrounds
This was a pet friendly park

Our impressions formed the first time we camped here were wrong. This is a great park to camp in and one you need to bring your bicycles to because the trails and boardwalks are great.