A look north from the coast road: behind the dunes lie Gulf State Park's freshwater lakes, the Nature Center, and the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail — 28 miles through seven ecosystems.
As we roll east along the coast, take a glance off to your left — inland, to the north — because behind this narrow line of beachfront lies a whole other Gulf State Park most day-trippers never see, and it's worth knowing about.
Just a few hundred yards behind the dunes sits Lake Shelby — nine hundred acres of clear, spring-fed fresh water, one of three freshwater lakes strung along in a row back there: Shelby, Middle, and Little Lake. Think how strange that is — sugar-white salt beach on this side, a freshwater lake full of bass and bream and even alligators on the other, separated by nothing but a ribbon of sand. Some folks reckon dune-backed lakes like these are among the rarer landforms on the whole planet.
And threading all through that green interior is the crown jewel: the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail. More than twenty-eight miles of paths and boardwalks that carry you — on foot or on a bike — through seven completely distinct ecosystems, one melting into the next: coastal dune, maritime forest, freshwater marsh, cypress swamp, and more. There's a Nature Center back in there too, with hands-on wildlife exhibits, a fine stop if you've got kids. If you've got a spare morning on this trip, park the car and go walk a piece of that trail — it's the best of the park beyond the beach.
For today, though, our drive stays on the coast. Keep rolling east — the open Gulf is about to open up beside you. Boone's got the tale of those hidden lakes, and of the man the great trail is named for.
Photo: Farrargirl · CC BY-SA 4.0
