Fort Pickens campground in Pensacola Florida

[caseyhoward]

We will be staying at Fort Pickens campground for two weeks and Pensacola Florida starting March 25 2017 We are looking for something's to do in the area and one of them will be the aviation Museum and be looking out for the blue Angels practice sessions. What are the things that we should take time to visit while in the Pensacola area. Of course love the beach, biking, walking, shopping, museums ,history, eating out. So that kind of gives you an idea of things we like to do.

[caseyhoward]

Thank you everyone for the awesome feedback I really appreciate it

[irishtom29]

The fortifications at the park are very interesting. Fort Pickens itself is a mid 19th Century bastioned fort, one of the last of it's type before the War Department starting building Prussian style polygonal forts. Fort Barrancas and the Advanced Redoubt, both across the sound on the mainland, are mid 19th Century polygonal forts. Also at Pickens are late 19th-early 20th century concrete Endicott-Taft fortifications including mortar pits, range finder towers, armored turrets and a disppearing gun.

Early during the War of the Rebellion Fort Pickens was held by the United States Army while Fort Barrancas and Fort Rhea were held by the Confederates. There were artillery duels between the forts and Fort Pickens' gunners, being Regular Army, soon dominated the rebel gunners, who were militia, and pretty much knocked them out of action.

[CharlesinGA]

Missed this thread earlier............. Been to the Ft Pickens Campground twice last fall. The Blue Angels practice sessions draw huge crowds, I think they publish a schedule of them. I was at the museum during the last one before the end of season air show at the NAS and was told the crowd was about 12,000 people and that it was a SMALL crowd. Was told by museum staff that crowds get as large as 25,000. They flood the museum afterwards so I really suggest visiting the museum on a day when they are not having a practice session. Get there by 10 or so to get (free) tickets on the 11 am tram to tour the outside exhibits (they are in a secure area, so you only can see them from the tram) there is also a 1 pm tram session, lasts about 45 minutes. Plan to stay most of the day if you really want to see all of the exhibits and you can eat in the cafe if you want. Prices are decent and the food is good. It is the Subic Bay officers club completely disassembled and transported to Pens and reassembled, very neat place.

The B, C, D, E campground loops are just east of a gun battery that has a set of long stairs to the top of a spotter building, it puts you about tree top level and is a great place to watch the practice sessions from.

OP didn't tell us what kind of RV they will be in, many of the Pickens sites are tight with overhanging trees and many pads are short. Spend some time on Google Maps (use street view, the campground loops are in there) before you reserve a site.

One place I didn't mention in the discussion below is that if you drive east on US98 toward Navarre, there is a Gulf Breeze Zoo, haven't visited but might next trip.

For the rest of my post, I'm going to copy and paste a post I made in another thread some time back, lots less typing.

Ft Pickens National Seashore Campground.

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/fort-pickens-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&...

Stay away from Loops B and D as the sites have very short pads and low overhanging limbs, good for tents and popups, not much else.can get in these sites.

I stayed in C39 the first time and (not sure) A18 the second time. Use Google satellite photos to help pick a site, along with the individual site photos and descriptions.

Its about a mile walk on a trail thru the marshes and woods to the Fort. Take a self tour or a guided one. Go across the parking lot a couple of hundred yards to the National Seashore museum in one of the old WWII barracks buildings. You can walk to the beach, or drive down to one of the couple of parking lots giving access to other parts of the beach. There are several gun batteries on the island and one of them is just West of loop B and just off the trail to the Fort. You can climb the stairs to the roof of the observation building and this puts you at treetop level giving you a view of the ocean and the bay.

At 8 am the Naval Air Station across the bay has their flag raising and the anthem can be heard loud and clear all the way over at the camp ground.

If you have time, its about a 30 mile drive over to the Naval Air Station to the Naval Aviation Museum.

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

Its totally free and get there early enough to get tickets for the 10 or 11 am bus tour of the outside exhibits (the only way you can see them, they are in a secure area). It takes all day to take in the museum's two buildings of airplanes and displays. Tons of parking normally so no problem with a motorhome.

If you drive to the NAS, you must enter the base thru the West gate to get to the museum and lighthouse, and that is accessed by taking the highway 399 bridge back across to Gulf Breeze, and then the US 98 bridge across the bay, and following 98 west till you angle off to the left on FL 292 (Barrancas Ave)and follow it all the way across town to where it intersects Fl 173 (S Blue Angel Parkway), Turn left and stop at the base gate to get a pass. You cannot enter the base from the Duncan Ave bridge except to visit the Barrancas National Cemetery, they will not let you drive thru to the museum. Everyone in the vehicle must have ID. Huge parking lot at the museum so no problem with a motorhome. If you are there during a practice session (I accidently hit the last one of the season) they make you park a ways off (in motorhomes or oversized vehicles) but still lots of room. The second time I parked a few spaces from the front door.

Eat lunch in the museum. They have a cafe. It is the officers club from Subic Bay in the Philippines, completely taken apart and reassembled inside the museum. LOTS of stuff on the walls. I at at the bar, its the original one. Good food and daily specials, not too expensive.

Do not visit the museum when the Blue Angels are having a practice session (Winter is off season thankfully) as there will be anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 people there to watch and they all flood into the museum after the session is over. Best place to watch a practice session is from the gun battery observation building I mentioned earlier.

If you have one of the Annual or lifetime America the Beautiful passes, it will save the entrance fee to Ft Pickens of $15 (good for a week).

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm

Also, good eating at Peg Leg Petes on the road out of the park. Go early as it gets crowded, but good service.

Congress just voted to up the fee for the lifetime, age 62 and up pass from $10 to $80, but the fees have not been officially been put into place yet.. Sadly by the time I reach age 62 in May, I am sure it will have gone up, still a bargain. EDIT: as of Mar 20, the info I found on the USGS and Nat Parks web sites says it may be 2018 before the Senior pass goes to $80, and certainly not any time soon, so get it as soon as you can.

If you are age 62 and still don't have one, take a fast trip to any one of these facilities and get one NOW.

https://store.usgs.gov/pass/PassIssuanceList.pdf

If you are a lighthouse nut, there is one on St George Is (original structure was on West end of island but the west end eroded away, so it collapsed and they salvaged the pieces and re-erected it right in the middle of the island). In any case, there are also light houses at (East to West) St. Marks, Carrabelle, St. George Is, Cape San Blas at Port St Joe and way down at Pensacola across the street from the Naval Aviation Museum. all of which can be visited and climbed.

Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum

http://www.pensacolalighthouse.org/

If you have access to DOD recreation facilities (ie. Active Duty Military, Civilian DOD employee, Retired Military) the Oak Grove Campground and RV park is on the Naval Air Station at Pensacola close to the Lighthouse. It is on the bay, but since it faces the channel to the ocean, it has a decent sand beach. I don't know anything else about it, but here is a link to it.

http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/florida/oak-grove-park-and-cottages

Also, while not on the ocean, there is Big Lagoon State Park campground. My coworker who took his travel trailer to Ft. Pickens both times I was there, has stayed at Big Lagoon several times and said it was a nice place, with good showers and campsites, and it is not far from Johnsons Beach on Perdido Key, part of the National Seashore system. Big Lagoon is on the Gulf Beach Highway about 5 miles west of the west gate at the NAS.

https://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/perdido-key-area.htm

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Big-Lagoon

There is a nice Neighborhood Wal-Mart Market just behind the Chic-Fil-A at the first traffic light south of the bay bridge. The Walmart Super Store is on 98 East side of Gulf Breeze. My friend in his Avion TT was there too and we paid the $1 toll several times as we went to the Chic-Fil-A and had to pay to get back to Santa Rosa Is. At the Toll booth there is a fishing pier (portion of old bridge) just on the east side of the new bridge. It is noisy as you are hearing the traffic going over the loose metal joints in the new bridge just above you but my friend is a fisherman (his wife is pretty well into it also) and we spend a couple of evenings late there on the pier fishing. There is another pier on the North end of the bay bridge, at the visitor center, but it is frequented by a less than desirable group of people most of the time. The amount of trash on the bridge attests to this. That $1 toll keeps out a lot of riff-raff from the other pier, just nice people interested in fishing seem to go there. We ended up on the beach at the Nat Seashore surf fishing and they did better there than anywhere. I enjoyed the museum and also the Fort and the National Seashore Museum. But I am a airplane nut and a history nut, so it was all good.

Charles
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[HappyCamper89]

Our favorite place to eat is Pegleg Pete's on Pensacola Beach. Great seafood!

If you need fresh seafood to cook, be sure and check out this place. It's amazing: http://www.joepattis.com/

[2gypsies1]

Drive over to the Gulf Shores area for lots to do. From there you could also take your car on the ferry from Fort Morgan and drive up to Mobile... a lot more fun than driving directly to Mobile.

http://mobilebayferry.com/

[1985air345]

Mobile, AL is a short drive away. The USS Alabama is docked there.

[RoyB]

I forgot to add we was pleasantly surprised to find all the shade at Fort Pickens.. It can really get hot down that way for sure...

Also loved looking in and out of the old structures there from the old fort...

We have only stayed a couple of times over the years... We always try to boondock along the outer coast line on gulf with our OFF-ROAD POPUP. Sometimes we get run off haha

Roy Ken

[Johno02]

We really enjoyed this, and its free.

Foley Railroad Museum

[RoyB]

When we go there we just wander up and down the beach from Pensacola to Navarre on the gulf side strip....

Its always nice sitting on the beach late at night and listen to the water coming in out. Never know what is going to be washed up...

Roy Ken