Fort Pickens Florida Campground Review

I will start out by stating that summer is not my favorite season to camp.  I much prefer the cool, crisp fall temps.  But, we decided to take a week to go camping this summer and one of our destination stops was Fort Pickens campground located in Gulf Shores National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, FL.


It was fairly easy to find, as we were somewhat familiar with the convoluted way to get to the Pensacola Bay Bridge (dog leg through downtown).  There are some additional fees in addition to the campground site fee.  You will most likely cross a toll bridge - our path took us across a $1 toll bridge near Gulf Breeze and there is an $8 admission to enter the Gulf Shores National Seashore.  This admission is similar to what you will pay to get into Yellowstone.  It is not per person, it is per vehicle and is good for 7 days.

The road into the National Seashore reminds me of Pidgeon Forge in Tennessee - very commercialized and built up but once you get into the National Seashore, it is a different story.  Miles and miles of sand on each side of the road.  It is a unique experience to look to the right and see the Pensacola Bay and then look to the left and see the Gulf.

The campground technically consists of 5 loops; however, loops B,C, D and E are part of one big loop.  Loop A is by itself.  Each loop has a bathhouse and there is a campstore with laundry facilities.  Don't expect much from the campstore, mainly bread and ice.  The bathrooms and bathhouse is not air conditioned, there is actually no air flow in the building.  By the time you took your shower and got dressed, the outside actually felt cool compared to the inside of the bathhouse.

There are 200 campsites at this campground.  If you are in an RV, I would HIGHLY recommend that you check out the length of the pads on recreation.gov before you reserve.  Quite a number of the sites are much shorter than what we were used to seeing.

The majority of the campsites have no shade.  The relentless heat and humidity made it difficult to sit outside.  That being said, we saw a lot of people tent camping.  Honestly, I don't see how they do it in the suffocating heat.  I did see some people who had 110 window AC units blowing into their tents.  Each site has water and electricity.  There is also a central dump station.

On to the things we enjoyed about this park.  Of course, the beach.  I really enjoyed getting out into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and getting knocked down by waves.  The water is clear and the beach is beautiful.  Unlike the crowded

beaches along the highway in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, the beaches in the park are not crowded at all.  We brought back a bag of shells that I plan on making a wind chime with.

This park also has a bicycle trail which is paved with limestone and runs from the group camp near the front of the park, through the campgrounds to the old fort and on to the fishing pier at the end of the island.

There are several "batteries" that you can explore throughout the island.  The fort is located at the tip end of the island.  We enjoyed exploring this historical building (actually a series of buildings).  There are guided tours but we did a self-guided tour with the help of a brochure that points out several features.

This campground is right across the bay from the naval air station in Pensacola so you will hear jets.  One afternoon, my husband got to see the Blue Angels perform some of their air show maneuvers.

Camping at Fort Pickens was a great experience and if you are a hot weather person who loves the beach, this is a must see for you.  While we enjoyed what this park had to offer, we would need a compelling reason and cooler weather to go back.