FORT PICKENS NATIONAL PARK STORM CLOSING

We are not going to Fort Pickens but the OP should be commended for this thoughtful thread posting. I wish other members would be as helpful on this forum as to negative need to know and/or safety issues in their local areas. Thank you NORM WADDELL!

I live about 2 miles East of the Park entrance. So far everything we've heard indicates they expect to be able to re-open the road by the weekend.

That one section of the road overwashes even with the really high tides of winter. They re-designed it after the last time it was washed away and so far it has held up well. The washing over leaves behind sand, but the road itself has been undamaged.

They will have equipment standing by to clear the road as soon as the water is gone. They don't want to keep things closed any longer than necessary.

Hope you all get to enjoy some of our beautiful weather as you had planned.

Fort Pickens has an information telephone number.....
giving updated recorded information about the road to
the campground..........850 934 2656.
The most recent recording says there is some sand on the
road.

It should not seriously impact that area. I would expect it to reopen quickly

We'll be watching the weather for sure and hopefully all will be past in a day or two.

Happy Camping!
John.

Storm was just upgraged to a tropical storm and named.

Local T V interviewed some of the campers at Fort Pickens
who were being forced to leave...........to put it mildly,
they were NOT HAPPY.......they said they were told the park
would probably be reopened by Friday p m or Saturday,
if the storm goes east as predicted.

We got the phone call this morning. We are to leave Gulf Shores State Park on Saturday to head there. The DW talked to them and they think we should be OK. But we are to check back on Friday to confirm what is going on. If it does close we are hoping we can extend our stay at Gulf Shores for a few more days.

The water at GSSP was very rough and full of seaweed this morning.

There is no indication of how long Fort Pickens will be closed.
But, this is a small storm, probably going well east of Pensacola.
I suspect that the park will be open again, possibly by the
weekend or Monday. I will P M you my phone number, and you
can call me daily for new info if you wish. I can call the park
for info, but doing that now will result in no firm information,,
since the storm predictions are not firm.

Norm,
Is there any indication that this closing will be in effect for several days... or a week... or more?

My DW & I have reservations at Ft Pickens next Thursday night... for 9 nights. We're really looking forward to this trip and hope the closure will be only until this storm clears the gulf... hopefully it won't cause damages.

Happy Camping!
John.