Alabama Recreation: Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and Gulf State Park

November 2018, weekend and weekdays

View from platform overlooking Gator Lake and
Little Lagoon in Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge

We only visited a small portion of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, which is HUGE! Specifically, 7,157-acres located in five separate units in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, United States, directly west of Gulf Shores, Alabama on the Fort Morgan Peninsula.

Start of Pine Beach Trail near parking lot

We hiked Pine Beach Trail, which starts at Fort Morgan Road and runs between Gator Lake and Little Lagoon out to the gulf. It is beautiful! The trail is a fairly easy hike of less than 4 miles round trip. Only a small portion of the trail is beach sand near the end.

We saw an eagle in the swampy area near the start of the trail before reaching the lake and lagoon. Unfortunately, I did not get any good photos of the eagle. Following are a couple more trail photos.

Return photo; lagoon on right

There is a viewing platform, which overlooks Gator Lake and Little Lagoon. We saw gator type movement across the lake, and wished we had thought to pack our binoculars before this trip.

Kayaking fishermen in lagoon at Bon Secour National Refuge

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge is definitely a worthy stop, and we hope to visit further in the future!

Gulf State Park

Gulf State Park is one of our favorite places to exercise when staying in Orange Beach. It seems we are not the only Michiganders who feel this way, because I noticed that several of the donated benches along the trail are from Michigan families and groups. I tend to think of myself as observant, although I sometimes notice things I missed when revisiting an area, and this was one of those things.

New walkway over 182 to Gulf State Park Beach & Pavilion

We biked and hiked in the state park four different days during this stay, and experienced just a couple of new things from our November and December 2017 visits. The new boardwalk is now complete, and we walked over to Gulf State Park Beach from the trail. There is an interactive center and restrooms where the boardwalk first enters this area; however, these restrooms were not open on the weekday we visited in November. The restrooms in the beach pavilion were open; they are located at the far east end of the building.

Carved bird in area where eagle nests in Gulf State Park

We saw armadillos in the same area we had last year (along the new boardwalk on the south side of Middle lake); however, we did not see any eagles or alligators this year. We saw two alligators last year, and there is a photo of one of them in my previous blog post. I noticed a lot more of the bird carvings in trees than I had before (photo above). I could not find any information about these birds online, and I am not sure how the birds came to be.

Views across Little Lake from Catman Road/Trail

Power line Trail has reopened with new wooden viewing shelters. They had been excavating in this area when we visited in 2017.

View from platform on Gulf Oak Ridge Trail

We also like the campground in this park, and we plan to visit the park with our RV when we retire in a few years. We noticed that most of the campsites do not have fire rings; we observed only a few fire rings and campers with firewood. After our visit, I read this information on the state park website: ...no fire rings yet but you are welcome to bring your own that are above ground.

You can find additional information about the area in my previous blog posts. Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share this post.