Gulf Islands National Seashore: Sand, surf and serenity

Laura Ruane | USA TODAY

Sugar-white sand and seaside serenity are two big reasons Gulf Islands National Seashore is so popular that readers of USA TODAY and 10Best this year ranked it as Florida's best beach.

"There's no place else in Florida where you have more than 20 miles of undeveloped beach," park superintendent Dan Brown says.

About 80% of the park is submerged lands teeming with marine life, but also includes mainland destinations and a ribbon of islands stretching 160 miles from Cat Island, Miss., to Destin, Fla.

It's a great place for swimming, fishing, hiking, beachcombing, bird-watching, boating and bicycling. Lifeguards are on duty at designated beaches from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The seashore also is rich in history, particularly military history. Naval Live Oaks Preserve outside Pensacola was the USA's first tree farm, established by President John Quincy Adams in 1828 to ensure a supply of wood for ship-building.

Among the seashore's military landmarks: Fort Pickens, one of only four Southern forts that Confederates never occupied during the Civil War, and Fort Barrancas, which overlooks the mouth of Pensacola Bay — a site so strategic that British, Spanish and American forces all built or rebuilt forts there when they gained control of the area.

Pensacola-based marketer and freelance writer Louis Cooper, 43, recommends a day trip to Santa Rosa Island's Opal Beach, a stretch of shoreline renamed after Hurricane Opal in 1995.

That storm wrecked a big picnic pavilion, which the National Park Service replaced with a smaller facility, while also adding drinking water, restrooms and outdoor showers. It's a comfortable place to watch the sea oats sway, and to look for shorebirds, fish and sea turtles.

"It's picturesque and serene," Cooper says, "No hotels or condos. There's nothing bigger than a bathhouse on the horizon."

Ruane also reports for The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla.

About the park

Size: Over 137,000 acres

Visitors: 4,455,240 in 2014

Established: 1971

History: Portions of today's national seashore went in and out of public ownership for about 50 years as preservationists and developers battled before the park was finally established with local voters' support.

When visiting: Fort Pickens has the most popular visitor center, which can be reached at 850-934-2635.

Of note: The sand on the seashore's beaches is quartz eroded from granite in the Appalachian Mountains and carried to the sea by rivers and creeks.

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