Fort Pickens

Ok, story time, its worth it. I'm going to admit I never knew about this place and we actually stumbled upon it while checking out Pensacola Beach while staying in destin. We were driving through and I saw the road went further west from Pensacola Beach on this little strip of island so I said let's follow it to the end, I mean, that's what road trips are about right?

So we keep driving and come up to the security gate for the national park, and we were about to turn around since it wasn't in our plans to visit and I had no idea what was there, but then I remembered I have a pass to all the national parks(worth looking into if you love hiking and forests) so we went on in.

We didn't know what to expect and it's about a 5-10 minute drive to get all the way to the end where the fort is but man-o-man is it worth it!

You can freely tour the fort and see just how intricately it was laid out, and no way could a ship see it from the gulf. They also do tours and I saw some guys dressed up in old uniforms so I think they do reenactments as well but you'll need to check. Like I said, we hadn't planned on being there, just stumbled upon it.

Anyways, almost the entire fort is accessible except for a battery across the street that is in bad shape from the environment. Did I mention they had BIG cannons there? You darn tootin they do! We got to see them up close and read about them. It's really worth reading the signs they setup around the fort.

There is a restroom(modern) on-site as well as water for sale in the gift shop. So after we finished checking out the main fort we circled around the edge where many people were fishing and headed back.

There are 2 more battery's on the way back with limited parking in each but if you can, they are worth the stop. These were the front line guns and cannon. There are two bigger batterys on the way back near the camping area that are also worth checking out. Oh yeah, There is also plenty of beach where you can go out and find shells and swim if you want.

The place is Beautiful and well worth a visit. Check out the pics for some more details and go see for yourself.