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    Gulf State Park

    4.3 (99 reviews)
    Closed 8:00 am - 4:00 pm

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    Christmas Lights
    Dee T.

    This was the first year the state park had a walkable Christmas trail of lights and I can only imagine that it will only improve. The people working at the greeting tent were very friendly and helpful. This is a very family event with a scavenger hunt and large trails. I will participate every year.

    Fire pit
    Lori W.

    I spent Tuesday-Thursday of May 2025 at Gulf State Park at The Outpost Campground at the Bonanza site with my mom and two aunts. The site was a 1.1 mile walk in on Cotton Bayou Trail which is a paved bike path. We parked by the Orange Beach water tower by the Cotton Bayou Trailhead in the overflow parking area. You have to first drive into Gulf Shores to enter the campgrounds main entrance to get the key to the bathrooms, your parking pass, and a map of the state park. This part was very frustrating for us as the woman working that day was very confused at us needing to check in (no clue why) and ultimately gave a lot of attitude and misinformation and tried to send us on our way without the bathroom key or maps. She handed us instructions on how to get to the parking area for The Outpost sites, which was in Orange Beach. We brought rolling coolers and a wagon to carry everything. I would suggest renting a bike nearby and bringing your stuff in behind your bike (not sure how plausible that is though). I do wish I had a bike here though as Gulf State Park has some awesome bike trails. The place seemed rundown as ours seemed to be the only functioning tent setup as two were completely taken down, and one's screen was completely broken. I will say the screen to our tent was broken and it was poorly duct-taped back together, causing us to get eaten alive by yellow flies. You could tell no one had stayed there in a while and that it was rundown as I previously stated. The water pump pumped very irony and sulfury water, so we didn't use it at all. There had been trash left in the sinks, empty water bottles. The shower was soo cute but sadly it didn't work. We tried to pump it and no water ever came out. The toilets were in little outhouses that were like port-a potty's. They hadn't been emptied and had trash in them when we arrived, they came at 7 am on our final morning to clean the toilets but still didn't throw out the trash left in there. The wood that was provided cost $1 for 2 sticks. We ended up also collecting our own sticks and pine cones to help with the fire. The fire pit didn't come with a poker or anything but made it work. There were 3 benches around the fire pit in addition to the two chairs on the porch that could be brought out to the sand. We very much enjoyed having a tent already set up for us with 4 cots inside. The cots were great for sleeping in the heat. There is a light switch and a light that didn't work, it looked like solar used to be set up there. There were some small solar lights in the sand that were great to have at night. On Wednesday, we went to the Gulf State Park Pavilion and paid $10 to park, not realizing our parking pass worked there. It was a great place to lay in the sand on the beach and then take a shower and use an air conditioned toilet. We then drove into town to eat at my all time favorite pizza joint- Papa Rocco's- for pizza and oysters which was delicious. Other than that we ate all of our meals at camp- mostly cured meats and cheeses, hot dogs, meat sticks, yogurts, and hard boiled eggs. Overall we had a great time spending family time outside together and in the beach town we grew up near (they're from Mobile and I'm from Baldwin county). I would definitely come back and pitch a tent in the main campground, but as far as the outpost sites, I think one time was enough for me lol.

    Bike rental near trail head
    Mike D.

    All great. We rented pedal assist e bikes and bike around the trails circling lake Shelby and middle lake.. lunch at the woodside restaurant was fabulous. Highly recommended even if you're not a biking person the peddle assist bikes can do most of the heavy work..

    During thru
    Penny R.

    The sound of the waves... The smell of the sea..... The soar of the birds..... The cleanliness of the beach as well as the park in general.... Perfection..... The trails are well kept and even with the afternoon thunderstorms they are clear of obstacles. They have a free bike program if you do not have your own.

    Melissa H.

    Just beautiful. You can just "be" here. Learning about the habitat is easy and fun. They have great trails and a free bike program. I hate to leave.

    Boardwalk
    Megan B.

    I would recommend this park for the playground alone but there is so much more we didn't get to explore. We were here on spring break from Wisconsin and needed a small break from the beach. We hiked the board walk and played at the playground which was the perfect little morning activity. They rent bikes at the pavilion and we would definitely do that next time to take a ride around the whole lake- scenery is beautiful.

    Sarah G.

    #firsthike was so good today! After all these years coming to Gulf Shores, I never took the time to explore Gulf State Park! We did a short hike, 2 miles to to the dog park where Bear met a friend named Latté and then 2 miles back. It was great to get out and explore. #bearyyythorne

    new signs at the fishing weir
    Barrett O.

    Fishing Weir? I have driven right past this little area over the years without giving it much attention, like many other folks on this well traveled road. It's Hwy 135 which is cut-through between Beach Hwy and Fort Morgan Rd cutting through Gulf State Park. It's a waterway on the western part of Lake Shelby, which is a 900-acre freshwater lake with a recreation area with picnic tables and pavilions so if you're looking for some lakefront time it's right here and it's only steps away from the Gulf of Mexico, just across the street :-) They have continued to improve this area over the years, which got a big facelift starting in 2019 and since hurricane Sally they have really stepped it up. There used to be a small sign next to the small pull-off that marked it is a "weir" which I had to research. What I found was interesting and once again satsfied the hmmmmm of another one of those things that make me go hmmmmmm LOL A fishing weir, fish weir, fishgarth or kiddle is an obstruction placed in tidal waters, or wholly or partially across a river, to direct the passage of, or trap fish. A weir may be used to trap marine fish in the intertidal zone as the tide recedes, fish such as salmon as they attempt to swim upstream to breed in a river, or eels as they migrate downstream. Alternatively, fish weirs can be used to channel fish to a particular location, such as to a fish ladder. Weirs were traditionally built from wood or stones. The use of fishing weirs as fish traps probably dates back prior to the emergence of modern humans, and have since been used by many societies across the world. So there it is, a weir :-) Does the whole weir concept work, well I'v seen people fishing there all the time now and I've seen pictures of 20+ pound black drums pulled out of this area, so obviously it really does work. The whole area has an improved bike trail, improved parking and walkways with information on signs on both sides of the bridge. It looks pretty nice and this time of the year the sunrises are very pretty here Bottom line: I'm not going to be pulling up a chair and cooler up the the waters edge of the water in this relatively small space where gators might decide to fish for me x-) Nope! Are there gators present? https://youtu.be/2k2SOHQ9pfY comment: the guy in that video either can't read or is just a nitwit, just sayin' ...

    Dog park area open to the water.
    Kelly E.

    The idea of the dog park was good in theory but I don't quite understand the fencing situation (or lack there of). If there are signs posted about not feeding alligators why would you have the dog park open to the water?! My dogs loved it but I was terrified they were going to be eaten.... I hate giving such a nice facility a 3 star review but the alligator thing freaked me out.

    Gorgeous view

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    Wonderful trails for walking or biking alo g this beautiful stretch of seashore. This is a great trail system!

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    Page 1 of 3

    Ask the Community - Gulf State Park

    We have reservations for a pull through site this summer. Are we allowed to have a tent also?

    Yes

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    Review Highlights - Gulf State Park

    We rented pedal assist e bikes and bike around the trails circling lake Shelby and middle lake..

    Mentioned in 4 reviews

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    Fins and Family Fishing - An awesome Red Snapper Catch on a beautiful summer morning!

    Fins and Family Fishing

    4.2(13 reviews)
    6.8 mi

    Today was the BIGGEST day of the trip! A charter fishing excursion for our birthday boy! Birthday…read morein June but had to wait for the trip! It was a day of surrounding storms. There was so much lightning that we almost didn't get a chance to go. Thank goodness that all the Fish Gods were on our side. Enjoyed a breathtaking sunrise. I could have had 1,000 more photos but there were fish to be caught! Taking off through the bays at what seemed like 100 miles an hour, we felt so confident in Captain Chris. He avoided all the rain and we fished to the last possible second. We hands down caught over 100 fish! That is not a fish tale! They just kept coming! Some bigger, some smaller...some micro sized! Cooper loved all of the fish, just one after another. It never stopped. Action on all of our poles the entire journey. Ethan, Norm and I had the time of our lives too! Fishing or should I say, catching all morning long! Croaker, white trout, speckled trout, don't quote me on that one, pigfish, catfish, spot, drum, a crab but just missed getting him in the boat. Even some oysters! We had a lot of shark bites on our bait. It so happens that I caught the biggest catch of the day. 25 pound Black Drum. It happened so quickly. Coop suggested where I could fish in the front by him. At least when I was bringing him up he sat me down, kept a watchful eye and even wanted to hold me in the seat! If I could have changed it, I would have had him land it! I have to say I'm quite proud of my PB though! Captain Chris, a deep mahogany tan that was earned from the sea. A fisherman through and through. I could see him as a brother to Quint, the Captain from Jaws for those of you not familiar. He had just the right amount of sass and sarcasm to keep you on your toes and eventually you could toss it back to him. He told be he would use me as shark bait but they probably would spit me out! I don't doubt that! Chris could have hung out with our friends and drank beers so we could hear his lifetime of stories. Maybe he would want to fish Lake Michigan some time?! We all loved asking about charters and personal best catches, hearing his stories and other trips that didn't go according to planned. He knew the waters, incredible boat handler, extremely helpful with the fish. Locations and getting them removed with a blink of an eye. He was everything you could want in a fishing Captain and more! We all had the absolute best experience and would book again with Fins and Family Fishing! They have the tours reeled in! Pun intended!

    I had high hopes for this one as their customer service and confirmations were amazing. In 3 hours,…read morewe only went to 2 fishing spots. Not only that, but our captain dropped us off 30 min early and complained about how this is more of a job than fun.

    Photos
    Fins and Family Fishing
    Fins and Family Fishing
    Fins and Family Fishing - Grouper for dinner makes everyone smile!

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    Grouper for dinner makes everyone smile!

    Gulf State Park Pier - Pier entrance from parking lot

    Gulf State Park Pier

    4.3(38 reviews)
    1.5 mi

    The Gulf State Park Pier has been seriously upgraded since my last visit. It had been damaged and…read morethey have done quite a lot of repairs and updates. I had no idea that they had started charging to go to the far end of the pier as that wasn't the case when I last visited. As a veteran I get free parking and also free entrance to the pier. I never saw any signage that indicated I had to pay to walk out to the pier but I did get yelled at for just walking out on the pier past the "commercial zone" and had to show my military veteran ID to proceed. I found it odd that I was somehow magically supposed to know that there was a fee or requirement to show my veteran ID when I never saw any sign to that effect. The lady that yelled at me came out of a door so she was inside where I couldn't have seen her so they should certainly add some signs that explain what they want more clearly to avoid weird situations like this. They also have a restaurant and bar here but I would suggest eating somewhere else. The pier does seem to be a decent place to fish and I saw several people bringing in some nice sized fish. Overall this seems like a good option if you want to fish off a pier or just enjoy the great view here. If I had to pay to just walk to the end of the pier I wouldn't have done that as you can get a good enough view from the "commercial zone" where the bar and restaurant are located. Overall this is an interesting spot to check out but I just heard they have raised the price of parking so that might make this area less attractive to visit.

    visited with my daughter and her friend. we had a wonderful time. we first ate at the restaurant,…read morewhich is covered and a magnificent place to view the water, beach etc out of the sun. the service was friendly and the pizza was really good. we paid $3 each to walk the pier, and it was well worth it. that amount buys you an entire day, so you can come back. the pier is long, clean and very large. lots of fishermen, and its fun to watch them. highly recommend!

    Photos
    Gulf State Park Pier - Pier view to land

    Pier view to land

    Gulf State Park Pier - It's a beautiful day on the pier!!

    It's a beautiful day on the pier!!

    Gulf State Park Pier - Bar 2

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    Bar 2

    Zeke's Landing and Marina - Great White sighting

    Zeke's Landing and Marina

    3.1(87 reviews)
    6.7 mi

    I had the opportunity to utilize Zeke's Marina for a couple of their services. We used the Zeke's…read moreTeam for a guided fishing charter and for lunch afterwards. The "Sea Hunter" fishing boat and its crew was exactly what our group needed. It was a spacious boat with an air conditioned cabin and plenty of space for our group. We caught our limit of red snapper and a king mackerel, so the catching was great. The boat staff cleaned our fish when we returned to the marina, and we took quite a few fillets to Zeke's restaurant where they cooked them up for us; what an awesome feature!! Everyone loved the fresh fish and sides, and we did a few appetizers to round out the lunch. Give these folks a try, and I bet you will love them like we did!

    Went on a public deep sea fishing charter in the morning. Deck hand did a great job of safety and…read morehouse rules. Captain was friendly and nice welcoming into the boat. Weather was perfect. Our party of 4 caught 40+ snapper and the deck hands were amazing with cleaning and attending to all of us during the charter! I can't wait to try all the fish! The marina was clean and nice! The gift shop is well stocked with snacks and neat gifts! We have charted here before and highly recommend! Side note: You can have the restaurant cook the fish you caught right there at the marina! We opted to cook a meal at home, but will try the restaurant next time!

    Photos
    Zeke's Landing and Marina - Sunrise at the docks.

    Sunrise at the docks.

    Zeke's Landing and Marina - Our group on The Sea Hunter

    Our group on The Sea Hunter

    Zeke's Landing and Marina - Captain JT Orr is holding an oversized Red Drum that my mother caught.  She didn't want to hold it for a picture, so he did for her.

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    Captain JT Orr is holding an oversized Red Drum that my mother caught. She didn't want to hold it for a picture, so he did for her.

    Gulf State Park - parks - Updated May 2026

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