Fort Pickens Campground- Pensacola, Florida (September 2022)

There is always an element of chance when making reservations for the campground at Fort Pickens National Seashore. While it is hard to get reservations there, keeping them is harder. 

Our previous trip to Fort Pickens is a good example. The ranger on duty at the check-in station was turning everyone away because the road to the campgrounds was flooded. What was frustrating to us was that the park closed three days earlier, but no one bothered to inform those traveling there. That wasn’t the first time we were surprised as were arrived at Fort Pickens. 

Signs for Pensacola Beach and Fort Pickens (its the much smaller sign!)

We breathed a sigh of relief when we made it thru the first ranger’s station and were told to proceed to the campground check-in office. We did and were surprised to find that office was closed for lunch. Well, chalk up another first for Fort Pickens. 

We checked in after lunch and, as usual, were told the major rules of that campground. You could sum up the rules at most campgrounds as “Don’t do anything stupid.” 

The final rule was that we had to wait until 2 p.m. before we could back into our site. That translated into waiting in a parking lot for 75 minutes on a day that the weather people on local radio said was breaking heat records for that day. We were told that the forced delay was to allow the volunteers time to blow any leaves off the site and to mow. We were glad when we were able to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer, in our site.

We were also glad our site had 50 amp power. We needed to run both of Rosie's air conditioners several times while camping at Fort Pickens. 

A cannon at the Fort

Enjoying the Gulf

The lighthouse in the distance

Sunset in the park

This is a park that we always try to bring our bikes with us. The campground roads tend to be busy, so we tend to ride on the hiking/biking trails. It appeared that the park skipped a few cycles of maintenance on its trails as they were overgrown and difficult to navigate. 

We ended up having to venture out onto the busy roads to ride our bikes. The day we felt the safest was when a large bicycle club was also on those roads. We found out that this group was in the middle of a 42 mile ride that morning. No, we resisted the desire to join in with them and simply leisurely rode back to Rosie. 

Cannon designed to protect Pensacola Bay

Backside of a cannon

A hallway inside the fort

Inside the fort

U.S. Coast Guard on-duty in the Bay

We also saw a group of divers near the fort performing a service project of cleaning up fishing wire and hooks left by fishermen. It was interesting to watch the divers work.

Most people would name the fort as this campground's primary feature. While it is interesting and deserves being explored, we think the beaches are second to none and are incredible. We took advantage of being able to walk from Rosie to the beach. 

We mentioned earlier that weather has always been a central factor when camping at Fort Pickens. This time wasn’t different. We were watching a hurricane in the Gulf and we were uncomfortable with rising winds in the area. We decided to hitch up and go. The park rangers must have been thinking the same thing because they sent out an email saying they were closing the campground and all 200 sites there must be vacated within three hours. By leaving early, we missed the mad rush to get to one of the only two dump stations in the park and being stuck behind 100 or more trailers going across the bridges connecting the campground with Pensacola. 

Hitching up a few hours before the "Hurricane Evacuation" order was given

Ready to leave before the storm hits

At one of the two dump stations in this campground

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• There were multiple loops in the campground
• Our site was a back in
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
• Our site had shade
• Most sites had some space on both sides
• Our site was paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• There were only two dump stations in this park for the 200 campsites. 
• The trash dumpster in our loop was near the bathhouse. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There were multiple bathhouses in the campground.  The one in our loop was very hot inside. I imagine it is very cold in the winter 
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 1 bar of 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Circle, Comet, Court-TV, Dabl, Get, Grit, ION, ME-TV and Stadium
• There were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

One of the two bridges leading to or from the campground

 

Fort Pickens Campground - Pensacola, Florida (April 2021)

We always knew there was a chance our reservations at Fort Pickens Campground could be altered by the weather. The road leading into the campground areas is on a thin stretch of land between the Gulf and the Bay. You can easily see both bodies of water as you drive into the park. 

But we expected weather issues during hurricane season, not early Spring. More about the weather later. 

It had been years since we camped at Fort Pickens. It is hard to get reservations there. Very hard. 

After multiple attempts to find an opening, we were able to snag four days in what we consider to be one of our least favorite loops. Well, we rationalized, this will get us back to Fort Pickens. 

On the way there, our chorus of GPS units was routing different from our normal path to Pensacola. When our Ford Navigation system, Garmin GPS, Apple and Google Maps all agree to take us out of the way, you know something is up. We found that the bridge we normally take to cross over the bay to Pensacola Beach was damaged by Hurricane Sally and was closed. 

About a decade earlier, we crossed the toll bridge our GPS systems were taking us to. We learned then that it was very expensive, especially if you were pulling a camper with two axles. We were glad to see as we approached the toll booth that the state suspended the tolls while the other bridge was being repaired. 

We crossed the bridges and soon saw the white sands and surf of the Gulf. Needless to say, we were excited about returning to the coast. That was when we saw “THE” sign at the start of the entrance road to Fort Pickens. The sign that announced the park was closed because of flooding in the campground and the access roads were under water. 

There is a problem at Fort Pickens

We didn’t see the sign until we were past any point we could turn around. Besides, there were several RVs in front of us driving into the park. Maybe the park was closed to day visitors and open to campers, we hoped. The Ranger’s Station was ahead and we could find out about our site there. 

By the time we arrived at the Ranger Station, we watched all of the RVs ahead of us make a U-turn and exit the park. Our turn with the Ranger wasn’t different from the others. 

An exasperated ranger told us that the park closed three days earlier and that Recreation.gov, the website used to book reservations in federal and national campgrounds, was supposed to send us an email advising us that our reservation was cancelled and our fees were refunded. They didn’t and the long line of RVs heading into the park suggested we were not the only ones Recreation.gov forgot to notify. 

There was a parking lot just outside the park’s access road. We noticed it was full of RVs that appeared to be boon-docking there until the park reopened. We pulled off the road at another parking area and started calling state parks and private campgrounds trying to find somewhere to stay for the night. It was apparent that the 200 RVs that should have been in the Fort Pickens Campground were dispersed among every other desirable campground in that area. 

Rosie parked outside of Fort Pickens

Rosie parked on the side of the road

A find on the beach after a quick walk to the shore

It quickly became apparent that full campgrounds tend to ignore their phones on Sunday afternoons and that we needed to widen our search for a place to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer, for the night. 

What did we do?

Stay tuned to see if we were stuck with a lemon for the night or if we were able to turn our situation into lemonade. 

Fort Pickens Campground - Pensacola, Florida ( April 2019)

We both grew up in Florida near the beach. Driving on roads with a little wind-blown beach sand on them is very nostalgic to us. Driving on roads with the beach on one side and a bay or lagoon on the other stirs up familiar and happy feelings from our childhoods. We love Florida's beaches and the roads leading to them.

The Pensacola Beach sign at night

The road with a little sand on it

It is always interesting to read reviews on AllStays, RV Parky and Campendium left by other campers  Some people complain about beach sand being blown on the access road to Fort Pickens Campground. I'm not sure what their expectations are from a campground at a beach, but I am willing to bet they are very different from ours. Very different!

It felt great driving to our campsite on a road that had some beach sand on it. We also enjoyed seeing the beach on one side of the road and the bay on the other. I think most campers with beach reservations are equally happy to see the tell tale signs of the coast. 

The sign at the park's entrance

There was a potential problem when we arrived at our site. It was designed for trailers with doors in the front. Rosie has a rear door. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) If we parked where the campground designer wanted us, we would only have a few inches to step on before a steep dropoff from the asphalt pad. The potential for an ankle injury was high. 

The solution was easy. We needed to park as close to the edge as possible so that Rosie’s door steps hung over the dirt on the side of the asphalt pad. 

The solution to Rosie's step problem

Once the parking problem was solved, it was time to enjoy the park. It’s a good thing that there are many ways to enjoy this campground. One example is the “Blues,” short for the Navy’s Blue Angels. 

We were wondering if the Blue Angels were at their home base, Pensacola’s Naval Air Station. The answer came to us in a roar our second morning. You get used to hearing military jets overhead in this park since all Navy and Marine pilots train across the Bay at the Navy base. You cannot mistake the intensity of the jet engines when the “Blues” are screaming over Rosie. It is a thrilling sight to see some of the best Navy and Marine pilots practice their skills as they fly over the park.

The "Blues" flying over Fort Pickens

Things took a serious turn on our third day. The weather forecast called for severe thunderstorms, driving rain, strong winds and an elevated threat of tornadoes after dark and until about 2 a.m. People camping in tents packed up and headed to hotels for the night. The RV and motor home campers secured or packed up everything outside before retreating inside to ride out the storm. 

Well, almost everyone. One of our campsite neighbors, the one with every camping gadget imaginable under their outside canopy, skipped the storm preparation task. 

As predicted, the storm woke us up several times during the night. It was entertaining during those times to look out Rosie’s window to see by the light of  lightening flashes what things had blown away from our neighbor’s site. 

Speaking of the storm, I was very grateful we moved closer to the edge of our site’s asphalt pad when we first arrived. A tree branch ran parallel to Rosie’s side. It was about six inches away from Rosie at first then about two feet away after we moved. During the worst of the storm, I estimated that the branch was swaying about ten inches and would have smashed into Rosie had we not moved. 

The tree on the side of the Rosie

Rosie in the campground

Temperatures turned cooler after the storm. I guess our reward for riding out the storm was perfect camping weather. 

One visitor said that a park census found that more than 150 osprey nests were currently “active” in the park. That was easy to believe. We saw nests and adult birds attending to their chicks all over the park. 

An Osprey enjoying his fresh fish dinner 

A bald eagle family was also residing in the park. We may have been the only family that didn’t get a photo of the juvenile eagle flying around the campground. 

There are some good bicycle trails in this park. We also noticed several people brought their canoes and kayaks, but we could not figure out where they launched them. 

One of the bike/foot trails includes a nice footbridge over a pond that is home to several large turtles. We always enjoyed looking for the big “granddaddy” turtle. 

A turtle in the pond

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• You have to use Reserve America to book a site in this park. It always amazes me how Reserve America keeps finding new ways to make booking a campsite more difficult. 
• There are five camping loops in this park. Loop A is separate from the remaining loops, which all run together in one large field. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection with good pressure
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There are two dump stations in the park. The first serves Loop A and the second is for the remaining loops. This means that you will probably be in a line to use the dump station. 
• Our site had an asphalt pad. We had to use one leveling pad to correct a slight lean to the left. 
• Our pad was very narrow. To avoid a situation where we could accidentally twist an ankle exiting Rosie, we parked as close to the edge of the pad as possible. 
• There are multiple bathhouses throughout the park. They all seemed to be the stereotypical federal bathhouses in that they are cinderblock and concrete structures painted shades of gray. 
• Water temperature and pressure in the showers were pleasant surprises. There was hot water and strong pressure. 
• We had only one bar of AT&T 4G voice and data service. We had to drive to the fishing pier several times to do something online. 
• We may have made a discovery about our TV system. FOX was the only station that occasionally drifted in enough for us to watch. We mentioned this to several neighbors who said they were receiving more than a dozen stations. We will check the performance of our amplifier and TV antenna when we return home. 

Similar to our last campground, we noticed several people packing up and switching sites every morning. Some Florida State Parks remain closed or continue being used as staging grounds for reconstruction after Hurricane Michael last year. This resulted in hundreds of campsites closing along the Gulf Coast and has people scrambling to get reservations somewhere else. If you’ve ever tried to get reservations in a Florida State Park, it is even more difficult now. 

We did notice an odd situation while camping at Fort Pickens. We went out to dinner one evening and returned after the park’s entrance station closed. We drove up to the keypad where you enter the secret code to open the gate. Next to the code on the back of the car pass was a request that you stop once entering the park to block the road until the gate closes, which we did. A car quickly came up behind us then turned around when it was apparent that we were not letting anyone piggyback in. Maybe “stealth” camping is a problem there. 

Along one of the hiking trails

Becky standing on one of the artillery batteries

A selfie at the fort

Inside the fort

A cannon at the fort

A frequent visitor at our camping site

Rosie at night

The footbridge

Rosie in our camping site

Becky along the beach

Fort Pickens Campground - Pensacola, Florida (April 2018)

We were wanting to return to Fort Pickens for several years. In fact, we had reservations a couple years ago only to have them canceled because of a storm. This is because the access road to the campground travels through a very narrow strip of land bordered by the Gulf on one side and the Bay on the other. Storms are known to bury the road in beach sand or, in the worst case scenario, the road ends up underwater for a day or two.

The entrance to Fort Pickens

The road to the campground is on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf and the Bay

This means you always pay attention to the weather reports while camping in the campgrounds of Fort Pickens because storms may strand you for several days. So why is Fort Pickens on our “visit again “ list? The reasons start with great beaches and include fun bike trails. Another reason for liking Fort Pickens is that you have a ringside seat for the Navy’s Blue Angels practice sessions on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

The "Blues" flying in formation

There are multiple camping loops in this park. Loop A is separate from the others and it’s sites are larger and some have shade. Loops B through E are all in one area that appears to be similar to a parking lot. We were told that the hurricanes have blown down the trees that used to line this area over the years. 

Another difference between Loop A and the others is that many of the sites outside Loop A were too short to allow both your trailer and tow vehicle to fit, so you end up parking the truck sideways in your site. That means you cannot hookup your rig the night before if you are planning an early exit the next morning.

Rosie parked in Fort Pickens Campground

As expected, the prime Loop A sites are difficult to reserve. That isn’t unique because it is usually hard to reserve a site in any loop at this campground. A possible contributor to this problem is the fact that Fort Pickens is a federal site and campers with the National Park’s Senior Pass card pay only 50 percent of the going rate. 

We enjoyed riding our bikes between the campground area and the fort. There is a small bridge along that path that always has a few turtles swimming in in the shade around the bridge. We enjoyed seeing the large “granddad” turtle there.

The bike/walking path between the camping loops and the fort

An unexpected bonus during our stay was that we were able to watch two practice sessions of the Blue Angels. We watched the Tuesday practice run from Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. We watched the Wednesday performance from the fishing pier and found that to be a better observation area because you could see more of the acrobatics from there.

Watching the Blue Angels practice from the fishing pier area in Fort Pickens Campground

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Reserve America says there are five camping loops in this park. In practice, there is Loop A and then the rest combined onto one large field. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection that delivered 40 pounds of pressure 
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There are two dump stations in the park. The first serves Loop A and the second is for the remaining loops. 
• Our site had an asphalt pad. It was slightly off center 
• Our pad was very narrow. We had to be very careful when exiting Rosie because it was too easy to step off the asphalt pad and potentially twist your ankle 
• There are multiple bathhouses throughout the park. These seem to have annoyingly loud exhaust fans
• A couple of hooks would be a welcomed addition to the bathhouse as these would give users somewhere to hold their items
• We had only one bar of AT&T 4G service. For the most part, our iPhones were unusable 
• We were able to watch Fox using Rosie’s TV antenna. ABC, CBS and NBC drifted in occasionally, but were unwatchable most of the time. 

We are glad we were able to stay in one of Fort Pickens' camping loops and plan to return.

Dunes area at Fort Pickens

Many osprey nest in this park

Selfie at the turtle bridge

A cannon protecting Fort Pickens

Inside the fort at Fort Pickens

Osprey landing on its nest

Rosie parked in Fort Pickens

Walking along the Pensacola Bay side of the park

Our campsite

Sunrise over the Fort Pickens campground