We are at Fort Pickens Campground in the Gulf Islands National Seashore west of Pensacola Beach, Florida.  The drive out to the park is along Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island that changes naturally over time.  In order to protect the natural processes and the wildlife habitat the elevation of the road is very low.  This means the road floods periodically and deposits all this lovely white sand.  They plow it off just like the snow on the roads in Minnesota.  This also means we could be evacuated or possibly even stranded if it floods while we are here.

Santa Rosa Island, Road to Fort Pickens

We were here a year ago.  To see that blog and more pictures [click here]

Fort Pickens Campground, #9

My niece, Lyndsey, lives in Pensacola now so we took her out for lunch and then for a walk on the beach and a nice visit.  The weather was kind of rough looking.  It was about 70F, breezy, and very humid.  It was supposed to rain, but it missed us.

Pensacola Beach Ball

Lyndsey

We visited Fort Pickens last year when we were here, but we went for another look. It has not changed.

Fort Pickens

Fort Pickens was completed in 1834 and used until 1947.  It was originally built to protect the coastline from foreign invasion but, ironically, the only real action it saw was when the country was at war with itself.  The Union army had control of it during the Civil War. And then in 1899 a fire reached a black powder magazine containing 8,000 pounds of powder creating an explosion that blew debris 1.5 miles away.  It blew out an entire corner of the fort.

Fort Pickens Explosion

With Bernie’s National Senior Pass the admission to the National Park was free and the campground was half price for us.

Click here to visit last year’s Fort Pickens blog.

• Gasoline Expense:  $85 @ $3.299
• Lodging Expense:   $13