Gulf Islands National Seashore

This entire last weekend was BEAUTIFUL!! The weather is finally starting to cool down, and by cool down, I mean in the high 70s, low 80s and LOW humidity!! This makes for awesome outdoor weather! Saturday I took Jack to the dog park and decided on Sunday to get out and about and do something I haven't done since we've lived here. Because the weather was perfect, I took Jack down to Gulf Islands National Seashore!

I think one thing I miss about living in Tennessee and Wyoming is that there is plenty of hiking around! Granted, I do live at the beach, but there are times when I just want to get away from the beach and do something in the mountains. This was as close as I was going to get without driving hours north, and it turned out to be perfect. 

For those of you that don't know, Gulf Islands National Seashore is America's largest seashore stretching 160 miles from Cat Island near Gulfport, Mississippi to Okaloosa, Florida. It's hundreds of miles of protected shorelines and pieces of land. They have a few different parts of the park, including Ft. Pickens in Pensacola Beach, Ft. Barrancas, Perdido Key, and the Naval Live Oaks Area. The closest one to us is the Naval Live Oaks area, so I headed there to hike!

I ended up walking the 0.3 mile loop right outside of the Visitor Center twice, then headed on to the 0.5 mile loop that led to an observation platform overlooking Pensacola Beach, and then I walked to the end of the Park's land on a 1.2 mile one way trail. Overall, I walked around 4 miles once the day was said and done! Jack was pretty tired and my feet were ready to take a break from my hiking boots, which haven't been worn in quite some time! 

I also was able to get THREE more stamps for my National Parks Passport!! I know, nerd alert!!! I take this thing wherever I go, in hopes that someday I will have it filled up! I think it's almost impossible to go to every single park, but my hope is that I will have traveled the US and visited a variety of National parks. We take for granted the beauty of these parks- especially when planning vacations overseas or in some far off place. 

So that was my awesome Sunday! Jack and I had a fantastic time and I can't wait to take Bill to the Seahore when he gets home from Afghanistan!!