Dauphin Island

I was saddened to see on the news this morning that tar balls from the oil spill were appearing on the shores of Dauphin Island. Dauphin Island is a tiny island that separates Mobile Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. There is one bridge leading to the island from Mobile, and a ferry on the other end of the island that took you to the other side of Mobile Bay (toward Gulf Shores).

We rented a beach house there a few years ago, after hearing about the beautiful beaches in Alabama. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are the better known beach towns, and allegedly have prettier beaches than Dauphin Island. But we visited Gulf Shores during our visit and I didn't notice that Gulf Shores was especially prettier than Dauphin Island. Gulf Shores was, however, far more crowded and commercialized. Huge condos lines the beaches and tacky souvenir shops abounded.

Dauphin Island was primarily beach houses (I think there were one or two condos, but they weren't super high-rises). Ours was about 100 yards from the beach. And there was nobody around (it was the off-season, but Gulf Shores was much busier). There weren't many tacky souvenir shops, and really, not even many restaurants. It was just a place to fish and play in the sand and grill out from the deck of your beach house.

There was also a really cool fort and a wild bird sanctuary with walking trails.

My kids rank our Dauphin Island vacation right up there with our trip to Disney, and have been begging to go back. I hope the oil spill doesn't cause too much harm. The island was still recovering from Katrina when we were there, and I think it has since been damaged by a subsequent hurricane. It's a lovely little island that is a refreshing change from the typical commercialized beach town.