Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Gulf State Park, Barber Marina attractions
Yesterday, we drove nine hours to Orange Beach, in Alabama's tiny panhandle. This area is at the far eastern edge of the Central Time Zone, so by the time we arrived at 6:40, it had been dark for two hours! After checking into the Fairfield Inn for a two-night stay, we walked to Cactus Cantina for some delicious fajitas.
Party Cactus
Behind our hotel in Orange Beach, Alabama
The main event for today was a bike ride through Alabama's Gulf State Park. The park encompasses 6,500 acres and includes pine forest, marshland, multiple streams, three lakes, and three and a half miles of beach. Alligators live throughout the wetlands, but despite our best efforts, they eluded us.
Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama
Backcountry overlook
Silent stream
Looking for gators
The Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail is a 28-mile paved trail system crossing through Gulf State Park's nine ecosystems. The sky was overcast and it was quite windy, but with a high of 73 degrees in November, I can't complain. We rode 16.5 miles.
Boardwalk to the beach
Gulf State Park Beach
Tom's attacked!
Quiet coastline
Happy early Christmas!
After our ride, we ventured to Barber Marina in Elberta, Alabama, to seek out its many oddities. It all started several years ago, when eccentric Alabama billionaire George Barber commissioned artist Mark Cline to build a few dinosaurs to display on the vast property surrounding his marina. The rest, as they say, is history!
Tyrannosaurus rex in the woods near Barber Marina
Tom and his brontosaurus buddy
Bamahenge, also built by Mark Cline, is a full-scale fiberglass replica of Stonehenge, including the orientation of the faux megaliths to the sun. Why bother, you say? That's as much a mystery as the original...
Bamahenge
Also along the road to Barber Marina, we encountered a cluster of Roman columns, a couple of knights in the woods, and - my personal fave - an enormous metal spider!
Roman columns
Knight in the woods
Jana and her giant spider
The piece de resistance of this showcase of curiosities is The Lady in the Bay, (another Mark Cline creation), a 50-foot fiberglass woman poking out of the water alongside the docks of Barber Marina. First floated in November of 2012, The Lady was sadly destroyed by a hurricane in September of 2020, so we didn't expect to see her. Imagine our delight when we arrived to find that she had just recently been re-floated!
Side note: Were "The Lady" to rise, she would reportedly stand 108 feet tall, taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Little Jana, large Lady
It was only three miles from Barber Marina to our hotel, but we had to drive 23 miles around a bay to get there, so it was dark by the time we returned. Later, we went to dinner at Luna's Eat & Drink Southern Coastal Kitchen and Taphouse. Tom had a burger and schwarzbier, but I was more adventurous with pork grillades and grits and an oyster stout. Everything was great!
Lodging: Fairfield Inn & Suites, Orange Beach, Alabama, last night and tonight. Comfortable and convenient.
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