Gulf State Park: Beach Mouse Bypass Trail (Blog Hike #1041)

Trail: Beach Mouse Bypass Trail
Hike Location: Gulf State Park
Geographic Location: Gulf Shores, AL (30.25516, -87.64361)
Length: 2.9 miles
Difficulty: 1/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: February 2025
Overview: An out-and-back on boardwalk along the south shore of Middle Lake.
Park Information: https://www.alapark.com/parks/gulf-state-park
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=979495
Photo Highlight:

Hike Video: (coming January 30, 2026)

Directions to the trailhead: This hike starts at the Gulf State Park Beach Pavilion, which is located on SR 182 2.8 miles east of SR 59 or 3.6 miles west of SR 161.  Be sure to pay for parking at the large beach pavilion parking lot before you start your hike.

The hike: For my general comments on Alabama's Gulf State Park, see my hike on this park's Catman Road Trail, which is described elsewhere in this trail journal.  I first came to this park in October 2007 3 years after Hurricane Ivan had destroyed its buildings and nature trails.  Only asphalt trails such as the Catman Road Trail existed here then, but nearly 10 years later a system of elaborate wooden boardwalks was built on the south side of the park's Middle Lake.  This hike stays on boardwalk for its entire length, and it features the boardwalk system's main trail: the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail.  As a bonus, this hike begins and ends at the beach that makes this park famous, so you can also get some beach time before or after your hike.

Pedestrian bridge near trailhead

            From the west end of the beach pavilion parking lot, head west on the boardwalk, which climbs slightly as it passes between a restroom building and the interpretive center.  The interpretive center contains some interesting exhibits about the beach, sand dunes, and wetlands that will be seen on this hike and about the plants and animals that live there.  A single boardwalk "switchback" lifts you up to concrete pedestrian bridge over SR 182.

View of beach pavilion from pedestrian bridge

            After crossing the pedestrian bridge, another boardwalk "switchback" takes you down to an intersection with the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail at 0.3 miles.  The entrance boardwalk ends here, and the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail, which is also a boardwalk, goes left and right.  We will go both ways eventually, but first turn left to begin heading west toward the park's main campground.

Beach Mouse Bypass Trail

            The Beach Mouse Bypass Trail is named for the Alabama and Perdido Key beach mice, a pair of federally endangered species of rodents.  The Alabama beach mouse was reintroduced at Gulf State Park in 2011, but it continues to struggle due to loss of coastal dunes habitat.  I did not see any beach mice on my hike, which is unsurprising: they are mostly nocturnal creatures.  The boardwalk lets you bypass the beach mice in the sense that it keeps you off of the sand dunes in which they live.

Trail shelter

            The boardwalk passes through a single trail shelter on its way to its west end.  The trail shelters on this boardwalk offer benches and partial shade on an otherwise mostly sunny hike.  This part of the boardwalk also offers the best views of Middle Lake with the park's main campground visible across the lake.  I saw many waterfowl here including coots and egrets, and I saw some turtles sunning on logs.

Campground across Middle Lake

            At 0.5 miles, you reach the west end of the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail where it enters the campground.  As an alternate to this hike, you could form a loop around Middle Lake by turning right, hiking through the campground, and then hiking the Campground, Cross Park, and Rosemary Dunes Trails to get to the east end of the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail.  All of the other trails in that loop are asphalt trails, and I wanted to stay on the boardwalk.  Thus, I turned around and started hiking the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail eastbound in the opposite direction from which I had just come.

Middle Lake

            0.7 miles into the hike, you get back to the entrance boardwalk, which exits right.  The entrance boardwalk will eventually be our route back to the beach pavilion parking lot, but for now continue east on the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail.  This boardwalk is also open to bicycles, and a large number of two-wheeled trail users zoomed past me as I hiked here.  Bicycles on a boardwalk feels strange, but the boardwalk is plenty wide to allow them to pass safely.

East end of boardwalk

            The east end of the Beach Mouse Bypass Trail traverses land that is a couple feet higher in elevation than the west end.  Therefore, the marsh is not as wet, and large numbers of live oak, palmettos, and even pine trees grow here.  I saw many common woodland birds including red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, and goldfinches while hiking this part of the boardwalk.  More trail shelters provide good opportunities to sit, rest, and do some bird watching.

Gulf State Park beach

            At 1.6 miles, you reach the east end of the boardwalk and its intersection with the Rosemary Dunes Trail.  If you took the alternate route around the lake I described earlier, you would approach this intersection via the asphalt trail to the left.  Turn around and retrace your steps first west on the boardwalk and then south across the SR 182 pedestrian bridge to return to the beach pavilion parking area.  No trip to Gulf State Park is complete without seeing the beach, so why not take the short mesh walkway across the dunes to the south to get to the white sand beach?  The view was surprisingly natural and uncluttered when I came here on a Tuesday afternoon in early February, and a walk along the beach made the perfect finish to my boardwalk hike at Gulf State Park.