FORT PICKENS - GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE

I’ll start this post by saying that I’m usually not a fan of exploring forts - I’m sensitive to war and many forts seem the same to me. However, Fort Pickens is a gem for photography. There is so much symmetry, lines, shapes, colors.. it’s pretty cool. It was used as a Civil War fort, on the Union side. If you’re interested, you can read up on the history during the civil war and even with the Native Americans.

You are have the option of a self-guided tour around the fort, or they also have National Park ranger-guided tours if you’d like to know more details about the history. We chose the self-guided tour since we’d be stopping to take a lot of photos.

Room after room is filled with archways, lines, and shapes. As you walk through each room, you can only imagine the history. I think my favorite part of the whole fort was this tiny tunnel, pictured below. It was pretty long. Vinay crawled to the end and said it was just a dead end. I’m so curious as to what they stored in there or used it for.

After the first small building, you’ll climb up on top of it. From here, you can see the waves in the ocean and the majority of the rest of the fort.

There weren’t any markers or descriptions to confirm our suspicions, but we thought the next part of the fort might have been prison cells. Those rooms were super dark, odd shapes, had bars on the windows and doors, and the room felt super eery.

Fort Pickens was a super cool fort - even for those who usually aren’t into that sort of thing. It’s worth checking out!