Me and my husband were finally able to get some time off from our work and we made plans to spend the short amount of time experiencing something we have never done before. Looking for some short weekend getaways, I stumbled upon the Utopia Of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. An oasis class ship that is set to do it's inaugural sail on July 19. It is the second largest cruise ship in the world next to it's sister, the Icon of the seas. What better way to experience and be introduced to the cruise life than being able to sail on a new ship. So in June 2024, we booked a reservation on what will be known as the World's biggest weekend, the Utopia of the Seas. The booking process was a breeze, choose your available dates, pick a room and pay. Can't be anymore straightforward than that. We chose our sail dates of August 9 to August 12, booked a balcony room with ocean view. For t...
Discovering trails, Hugh S Branyon Backcountry Trails
Today we are going to explore together this beautiful trail we discovered nearby. It's called Hugh S Branyon Backcountry trails and it is located in Orange Beach, Alabama. There are multiple entrances into the area but if you want an address you can key into your navigation system it will be 3801 Orange Beach blvd. Orange Beach, Alabama 36561 and this is what is called the Catman Trailhead entrance.
As usual, join me through this video to experience a first person view of the trail.
The Backcountry trails consists of 7 trails throughout 6 distinct ecosystems which spans to about 27 miles. There are no entrance fees to the trails. It's a nice place to walk, hike or bike through, getting your daily dose of exercise and relaxation while discovering the multiple areas of the park.
As of the day of writing this blog, I actually already gone back to it again the following weekend, it's that amazing. Our two visits here were both on a Sunday so there was a good number of people also on the trails. The paths are pretty wide so you have nothing to worry about running into other people or getting your path blocked. We used our mountain bikes on both visits. If you plan on biking the trails, I suggest you keep a bike bell so whenever you overtake other people, you can politely let them know you're behind them and passing. Pets must be kept on a leash at all times, daytime hours only except in designated camping areas. Absolutely no smoking and no motorized vehicles are allowed. If uoi are biking, you definitely should obey their 10 mph speed limit for safety of not just yourself, but other visitors.
Lefty the Alligator, located at the Rosemary dunes trail, usually relaxing on the side of the road with little baby gators.
Since of course even though there are paved trails, you are still in nature so expect to see plenty of wildlife around. We saw a bald eagle, a few alligators and a turtle! It was awesome seeing them in person! Our first time biking the trails we did about 21 miles not by choice! We got lost throughout the multiple trails you can take so we ended up going all the way to the end in circles and just finally decided to backtrack the trails we took so we can make it back to where we parked our car. I suggest downloading an app like AllTrails to help you navigate. We relied on our phones map app to take us` back to our parked car but of course it only gave us driving directions to it.
Here's a complete map of the trails, there are a bunch of them scattered around through information kiosks in the area. One of the paths will take you over the main highway to the beach.
Saw a little tortoise crawling out from the bushes about to cross the road, it is so cute!
Here is the overlooking area where you can see all around Orange Beach Alabama, this overlooking is a good 10-15 ft high.
Here is another entrance to the trails, this is the Orange Beach sportsplex entrance.
A little overlooking play area on the side of one of the trails.
Here's another parking area/entrance to the trails.
If you plan on walking or biking the trails for the first time i do have a few suggestions based on my experience. Download the AllTrails app on your phone so you know the exact paths to take when you are navigating through the trails. Bring a few bottles of drinking water because you will get tired, there are a few benches along the path where you can rest and also so water refill stations for your water bottles. I also did notice a few rest rooms located throughout the area. Be alert of your surroundings, there are other people sharing the path with you and most of them are bikers. Don't feed the wildlife even if you are tempted to, you will see a few along the way. Don't forget to enjoy the beauty around the area. The pollen was pretty bad when we did the trail which triggered some allergies for my hubby.
We enjoyed the area so much that we think we are going to make this the trail we do on the weekends for some exercise and enjoying nature.
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