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

 

Davis Bayou Campground - Ocean Springs, Mississippi (April 2021)

Our original plan was to camp on the Florida side of the Gulf Islands National Seashore at Fort Pickens. That changed when our reservation was cancelled because of flooding in the campground. After a quick search for a new park we ended up getting reservations on the Mississippi side of the same Gulf Islands National Seashore in the Davis Bayou Campground. 

Sign at entrance to park

The road to the campground

We always think of visiting Fort Pickens as a beach trip. Florida beaches are very different from the ones in Mississippi. To be fair, we could only reach the Mississippi beaches behind the barrier islands. We missed the soft white sands found on the Florida side of the Gulf Islands Seashore. Perhaps the soft white sand we are used to seeing is found on the Mississippi barrier islands, which are reachable only by boat.

We did find the beaches around the casinos in Biloxi. The imported white sand there felt nice as we took several walks on the beach. 

On the beach in Biloxi

Having “Bayou” in the campground’s name creates a different set of expectations for this park. If "bayou" paints visions in your mind of swampy wetlands with ample "critters," you are on the right track.

The ranger told us as we checked in that the alligators were awake and active. We saw our first “gator” the next morning in one of the park's ponds. 

A gator in one of the park's ponds

The ranger told us the raccoons were active. We overheard some people our first morning saying they left some food out overnight and the raccoons had a feast. 

The ranger did not tell us about the birds. We found them on our own. The ranger did not tell us about the turtles. We found them throughout the park. The ranger did not tell us about the pelicans. We found them, too, and enjoyed watching them scout for their meals. We found ospreys building their nest near the visitors center. We also enjoyed watching the lightening bugs, as they are called in the south or fireflies for those from the north. They entertained us in the evenings. Yes, the bayou critters were active. 

A pelican in the bayou

The osprey nest

Speaking of birds, they were everywhere and filled the air with happy bird sounds. This reminded us of the sounds that seemed to be everywhere during our childhoods. That was very nostalgic and fun to hear. 

Another "critter" roaming the park

There were an unusual number of bikers, hikers and bird watchers in the park. It turned out that the park was surrounded by several nice residential areas and there were special gates that gave those neighbors quick access to the park. It appeared to us that the local residents loved to bike, hike and observe birds in their backyard park. 

This is a small campground with only 51 sites and several appeared to need repairs and were unavailable. Since we made our reservations at the last minute, we had to switch campsites after a few days. As with any campground, some sites are better than others. We enjoyed our second site more than our first. 

First site in the campground

Second site in the campground

It appeared to us that the Biloxi casinos were a reason some people camped here. Others were here to spend some time in the bayou and enjoy the quiet solitude found in this park. We found the quiet intermingled with the sounds of birds and the bayou animals was a great reason to visit this park. The bike paths and the hiking were the icing on the cake. 

Biking in the park

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• This is the first park we camped in that vigorously enforced check-in time. You will not be admitted to the campground before 1pm. 
• There were two loops in the campground. 
• Most sites could be classified as "full sun." Only a few had shade.
• Most sites had ample space on both sides. Our first site must have been in the park’s buddy site since the space between our sites can only be described as “tight.” We had to change sites after a few days. Our second site was better. 
• Both of our sites were paved with asphalt and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. 
• Our sites had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our sites had a water connection
• Our sites did not have a sewer connection 
• There was a dump station in this park. It was easy to pull your sewage tote to it.
• The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on its condition
• The park did not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided 2 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 Antenna-TV, Circle, Grit, LAFF and an overload of crime related channels
• The campground was near Ocean Springs, Mississippi. That meant there were restaurants and shopping nearby
• This was a pet friendly park 

Fellow campers told us about the big gator in one of the park's ponds. Having grown up in Florida, we recognized the sounds of a large gator, but didn’t see him our first week in the park. He lived up to his billing as a big gator when we finally saw him. 

The big gator in the pond

We are glad we had an opportunity to experience this campground. 

Selfie in the park

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 Beach, Florida

We made our third trip in Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, to Fort Pickens' campground during May 2015. Fort Pickens is inside the Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola Beach, Florida, and is administered by the National Park Service. For this trip, we returned to Loop A in the park.

Entrance to Fort Pickens

One of the first things we noticed this time was the new bathhouse in the A loop. We noted in an earlier visit to this park that the old bathhouse was in need of serious repairs and we suspected that new forms of mold were being incubated in the shower areas. The new bathhouse was built to the side of the old one and the workers were finishing the sidewalk on our first day in the park. Since we were going to be there for two weeks, we looked forward to seeing the new bathhouse opened and the old one closed and eventually removed.

I'll talk more about the bathhouses later in this posting.

Two weeks is a perfect length for a visit to this park. The Gulf of Mexico beach area was calm during the first week and very active the second. The days were sunny during the first week followed by time periods of windy and rain the second. We would have been slightly disappointed in the weather if we were only there our second week.

The Gulf was calm during our first week at Fort Pickens

The surf was stronger during the second week

As true in any campground, location of your site is important. On our previous visit, we were in a small site and the bushes at the rear of the site were covered with poison ivy. As someone who is very susceptible to poison ivy, that was one of the worst sites in the park.

We were able on that visit to scout out some better sites and were fortunate enough to reserve one for this time. It was much nicer having one of the larger sites and one without vegetation that causes me to break out.

Rosie at Fort Pickens

Back to the bathhouse for a moment.

We noticed on the second day that the barrier tape was still around the new bathhouse and we to continued to use the old one. The new bathhouse had to be ready because the workers were using it and taking their showers in it. We were excited about switching over to it during our visit. More later . . .

If you enjoy watching birds, the Fort Pickens Campground will be a special place for you. Blue Birds, Blue Jays and Cardinals were just a few of the different types of birds that were in our camping area daily. But the stars of the show were the ospreys. We enjoyed watching osprey parents watch over their nest, which was about 100 feet from Rosie's door. It didn't appear that the babies had arrived while we were there, but the happy event wasn't too far off in the future.

Osprey nest near Rosie

Herons enjoying the Gulf

A crab somewhat annoyed that we were disturbing his beach

A Cardinal cleaning his feet

The Cardinal wanting to go inside Rosie

You want to bring your bikes to Fort Pickens. There are several trails and it is fun to ride your bike on the Florida Trail to the fort. The turtles always surfaced to see if you brought them a snack as you passed over the wooden bridge on that trail. Bikes do add to the fun at this park.

The Turtle Bridge along the walking and bike path to the fort

Back to the bathhouses for a moment.

We noticed that the construction workers packed up and left on the third day. Again, we were looking forward to abandoning the old bathhouse and using the new. We were able to ask one of the park rangers what was holding up the move. It turns out that the power company hadn't switched on the electrical service to the new one, but the ranger was confident the power truck would arrive any day and construction barrier tape around the new bathhouse would come down. More later . . .

We suspected that a couple of the sites around us were held as walk-in ones. It became part of our entertainment to see who would be camping in them every morning as the turnover was high.

While we were in the park, there were eight other Airstream trailers and an Airstream Interstate motor home. One of the Airstream trailers was a 50 year old camper. The current owners accounted for twenty-five of those years and they continue using their 1965 Airstream. For many brands of travel trailers, it would be a very rare thing to see someone camping in a 50 year old trailer. If you have been on the road for a year or two in your Airstream, you have seen several vintage Airstream trailers still in service.

Back to the bathhouse for a moment.

You would think that the power company could fit a visit to the park within the two week window we were there to connect the power to the new bathhouse. Obviously, we were wrong. The construction barriers remained around the new bathhouse as we packed up and headed home. Maybe the new bathhouse will be open the next time we visit the park.

Here is some specific information about this park:

• There are five camping loops in Fort Pickens Campground. Loop A is separated from Loops B-E. Loops B-E are all lumped together in parking lot fashion. Most of the tents tend to be in the E loop.
  
• We were amazed that some big rigs were able to get in sites that appeared too small. Calling these "tight fits" is very generous. You probably need to add a few feet to the length of your rig when you book your site to make sure you get one that will comfortably fit your rig. I think the maximum lengths given on the park's Web site are very optimistic.
• There is very little shade in this park. Rosie's air conditioner was working at full capacity the entire time we were in the park.
• This is a pet-friendly park. As is only right, you are expected to keep your pets on leash and to pick up after them.
• Our site in Loop A had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
• There are two dump stations in the park. One serves Loop A and the other serves Loops B-E. It was common to see lines waiting to use the dump stations as campers were leaving the campground.
• There is no WiFi service in this park.
• AT&T provided reasonable 4G LTE voice and data service over our camping loop. We did notice that service improved when we moved our phones closer to Rosie's rear window.
• There is a camp store in the park at the entrance to Loops B-E. The park's laundromat is next to the camp store.
• The new bathhouse in Loop A includes a laundry facility for that loop. Perhaps we will see the new laundry along with the bathhouse open the next time we visit the park.
• If you need to shop for groceries, there is a Publix about six miles from the park. You will have to invest a dollar in tolls to cross the bridge to the shopping area.
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna. We were also able to see CW, MY-TV, Me-TV, GET and Grit digital channels.

Fort Pickens is a great park to visit and we plan to return in about six months. We will let you know then if the power company finally arrived and switched the power on to the new bathhouse.

The Fort

A walk along the Gulf's shore at Fort Pickens

Jeremy and Elizabeth join us at Fort Pickens

Annie, our 16 year-old Yorkie, at Fort Pickens

Annie loves camping in Rosie

Using the Eagle One amateur radio antenna at Fort Pickens