Fort Pickens National Park

Fort Pickens has been on my photograph again list for almost ten years. Joan and I camped at this National Park on our very first winter camping holiday, back in 1999 when we pulled an Award trailer with our white Buick Roadmaster.

Those were pre-digital days for me, and I've always wanted to return to Fort Pickens NP. Two hurricanes in as many years did enough damage to close the Park. The road was out, many facilities were simply blown away.

This year, part of the camping has been re-opened, and the road taken out by the hurricanes has been re-located northward to a point where there was still some sand to build on. We found our return quite sad since there are thousands of dead trees to look at, and fairly flat new dunes with little if any vegetation. These new dunes will be very vulnerable to any new hurricanes, but I digress.

The Fort was originally built around 1839 and was modified in the late 1800's and again in 1942. It was built using slave labour with a few gazillion bricks in the style of the latest fortress building style-du-jour. Ceilings were vaulted, walls were unbelievably think. Over time, salt water and rain water saturated the soil and dripped through the vaulted ceilings. The vaults were being decorated by Mother Nature, her idea of natural graffiti.

I had remembered the wonderful shapes of the sensuous arches and the green hues of the mosses that seemed to grow in these dark and moist spaces. What a surprise to find stalactites that are being created by the salt in the water; all kinds of new shapes created over many years with the help of evaporation and gravity. What a wonderful combination, I hope you enjoy the photos.

Did I mention that I just love the brick arches...

The next photo was made to record the thickness of the walls. You can understand why it took a gazillion bricks.

Here's just one of the many 32 pound guns [cast in 1833!] that the fortress was built for. Can you just imagine the noise? ... ricocheting through the many arches, hallways, grottos, and other brick spaces of the fort? Good thing the Fort was never used in anger.

Some architects design wonders, some slaves built masterpieces.

If you double-click on the next picture, you'll see the stalactites that I don't remember being there 11 years ago.

This has to be Mother Natures best graffiti wall. Can you imaging anything better? And in a few more years, it will be improved even further. What fun!

This next view is likely similar the other end of the vault pictured above. The two quarter-circles in the above picture would be for the two guns [canons] that would shoot through the two openings below.

Even the best laid plans are sometimes modified.

Question for the Grandkids: Just how many arches [old and new] can you find that frame this doorway? Don't forget to double-click.

Fort Pickens is on a spit of sand [Gulf Shores National Seashore] just off Pensacola Beach, about a two hour drive from where we are in Grayton Beach.

The three "J's", Len and I, all went together and had a great time. Some laughter was involved, and that's good. [three "J's"? Jan Judy, and Joan, of course.] ... and maybe it was more than just 'some' laughter, more like much hysterical laughter, but then, that's another story.