Coastal Alabama filled with natural treasures

Gulf State Park. Cabins, lakeside cottages and a campground for RV and tent campers. Campsite rates start at $31. Cabin rates range from $85 for an older, smaller cabin in the woods to $237 for the largest, newest lakeside cottage. 20115 State Highway 135, Gulf Shores, Ala. 1-800-252-7275, alapark.com/gulfstate.

Eat

King Neptune's. A longtime favorite serving fresh seafood entrees, platters, sandwiches and appetizers in a homey atmosphere. Dinner entrees start at $14.99. 1137 Gulf Shores Parkway, Gulf Shores, Ala. 251-968-5464, kingneptuneseafoodrestaurant.com.

The Hangout. Open-air casual beach bar and restaurant with plenty of amusements for kids and adults. Entrees start at $16.59. 101 E. Beach Blvd., Gulf Shores, Ala. 251-948-3030, thehangout.com.

Visitor information

Gulf Shores Welcome Center. 3150 Gulf Shores Parkway, Gulf Shores, Ala. 251-968-7511.

Orange Beach Welcome Center. 23685 Perdido Beach Blvd., Orange Beach, Ala. 251-974-1510.

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism Department. 1-800-745-7263, gulfshores.com.

You won’t find orange groves in Orange Beach anymore — the last orange crop was wiped out by deep winter freezes in the 1920s.

However, the agricultural industry was replaced by one that had a healthier outlook along the Alabama Gulf Coast in the mid-20th century: tourism.

Along with its twin city of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Ala., is now a haven for beach lovers, but there’s much more to the area than just sunbathing and frolicking in the surf. Coastal Alabama is filled with natural treasures beyond the beach.

These side-by-side beach resort towns share a convention and visitor’s bureau and are alike in most ways, but Orange Beach sits on a large peninsula with miles of shoreline on the back bays and bayous. This makes it more popular with anglers, paddlers and boaters because of the number of marinas, boat ramps, docks and put-in spots available. Also, Perdido Pass provides easy access to the Gulf of Mexico.

Driving between Orange Beach and Gulf Shores along the main beach road, you pass through Gulf State Park. Here, the beachfront high-rises and shopping centers give way to unobstructed views of sand dunes, beaches and emerald Gulf waters.

The park claims the largest pier on the Gulf of Mexico, if not the longest, with 41,800 square feet of space containing a sheltered concession area, bait and tackle shop, and restrooms. Across the beach road there’s a lake, golf course, camping areas, hiking trails and the new Gulf Adventure Center.

The centerpiece of the adventure center is a zip line course made up of towers that let you soar 90 feet above the ground and the lake while providing a pelican’s-eye view of the beach and the Gulf. Lake Shelby, where the adventure center is located, is also a scenic calm-water kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding spot; rentals are available.

The state park also provides access to one of the best-kept secrets in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach: the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trails. The trail system lets hikers and bikers explore 15 miles of trails through maritime forest, secondary dune fields, swamps and marshlands. The Branyon trails are paved and have boardwalks, so the backcountry sightseeing is easy for joggers and bikers and accessible to wheelchairs.

In Gulf Shores, the Perdue Unit of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge contains 5 miles of sandy trails through dune, scrub and pine forest habitat at the western end of Little Lagoon, a body of water that’s anything but little. There’s also a 1-mile wheelchair-accessible loop trail.

The trails in the refuge and state park are stops along the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail. The birding trail loops through Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and the Fort Morgan peninsula west of Gulf Shores.

There’s also a loop through Dauphin Island, across the mouth of Mobile Bay. Dauphin Island is reachable by a vehicle and pedestrian ferry from Fort Morgan at the tip of the peninsula.

The Alabama Gulf Coast is located along the flyway for many species of birds during the migration seasons of spring and fall, so expect crowds of birders carrying binoculars at stops along the trail during these times.

The milder weather that fall brings makes it one of the best times for paddlers and boaters to explore the back bays and coves around Orange Beach. The dolphin-watching is especially good, as pods of bottlenose dolphins call the bays home and rarely venture out into the Gulf.

Bill Mitchell of Cetacean Cruises (cetaceancruises.com) leads dolphin-watching excursions aboard his pontoon boat and knows exactly where to find the playful creatures. He even calls some of the older dolphins by name — recognizing them by their behavior and markings — and they seem to seek him out.

If you'd rather paddle your way around, Coastal Kayak Excursions (coastalkayakexcursions.com) offers guided trips of Wolf Bay, or you could rent your own for a self-guided tour. Scenic Wolf Bay is a good spot for dolphin and bird watching because it's less developed and less trafficked by motor boats than the bays closer to the pass.

No trip to the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area is complete for nature and animal lovers without a visit to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, which gained national attention in 2006 when it was spotlighted on the Animal Planet series “The Little Zoo That Could.”

The series documented the zoo coming back to life after being swamped by Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005 and all of its animals having to be evacuated. The zoo still sits in the same low-lying spot but will move to a new larger and higher location just up the highway in the near future.

For now, the fully-recovered current location is well-known for its Animal Encounters program, which allows visitors to go inside the enclosures for an unforgettable hands-on experience interacting with baby kangaroos, tiger cubs, lemurs and other animals.

It’s well worth the small extra change on top of the regular admission price and may well have you saying of your trip, “Beach? What beach?”