Mobile: Pine Beach Loop
See gators, sea turtles, and life-list birds on this 3.7-miler in Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, one of the Gulf Coast's last undeveloped tracts.
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Trail Facts
- Distance: 3.7
Waypoints
PBL001
Location: 30.2474308013916, -87.8290481567383
Head SW on dirt track into rolling maritime woodland of gnarled, moss-draped live oaks. Pack bug spray for no-see-ums
PBL002
Location: 30.2445125579834, -87.8247375488281
Small marsh on L; magnolia flowers cast scent over hummingbird-friendly red basil shrubs and berry-full muscadine vines
PBL003
Location: 30.2411994934082, -87.8200531005859
R @ Y staying on Pine Beach Trail
PBL004
Location: 30.2375392913818, -87.8183975219726
Isthmus divides saltwater flats of Little Lagoon to E and freshwater Gator Lake to W (year-round fishing for largemouth bass, catfish, bluegill). Gators live here, too
PBL005
Location: 30.2337493896484, -87.8166732788086
Within dunes and scrub pines, fi nd ruined beach homes (Hurricane Frederic, 1979). Great blue herons and cattle egrets cling to marshy shore of Little Lagoon
PBL006
Location: 30.2323799133301, -87.8163833618164
Turn L toward beach through tall grass; white-sand beaches stretch along the Gulf of Mexico
PBL007
Location: 30.2295150756836, -87.8139419555664
Pine Beach: These wind-sculpted dunes are home to two endangered species, the Alabama beach mouse and the loggerhead sea turtle. Head W along beach
PBL008
Location: 30.2291126251221, -87.8194122314453
Turn R. Ahead is the Civil War-era relic Fort Morgan, the 173-year-old guardian of Mobile Bay
PBL009
Location: 30.2306900024414, -87.8187408447266
Back on the dunes, head 2 mi. back to WPT 6; retrace route to car
