Gulf Shores, Alabama

 

Gulf Shores is a coastal city in Baldwin County, Alabama, Gulf Shores is located on the Gulf of Mexico and is the southernmost settlement in the state of Alabama. It is served by Alabama State Route 59 (Gulf Shores Parkway), which leads north to Foley, Gulf State Park occupies a large eastern part of the city. The location of Gulf Shores on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico makes it vulnerable to hurricanes and in September 1979, Hurricane Frederic leveled most of the town then In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan caused extensive wind and flooding damage. In 2005, while the city was still cleaning up from Ivan, Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage and flooding and that is not all, the 2010 BP oil spill was expected to severely effect both local real estate and beach tourism. However, after a rough year, the tourism economy in Gulf Shores appears to have returned to pre-spill levels.

From the shores you can look out across the Gulf of Mexico and see a lot of oil and gas rigs. They are everywhere you look from the shorline.

Once again we spent some time at the beach as we were told that there may be some shells there. We did not find many but we met some people on the beach and they showed us some shells that they had picked up and some of them still had residue from the BP oil spill that happened in 2010. Since the oil spill we were told that the sea shells have not been plentiful since this event.

We did manage to capture a picture of one of the local birds eyeing the beach for some food to wash up on shore.