Blue Angel Park

This goes back a few weeks, but I thought I would write a little about Blue Angel Park.

Blue Angel Recreational Area is a Navy recreational facility. It is located southwest of Pensacola on the beautiful Perdido Bay. Unfortunately, that means it is only open to active and retired military and DOD civilians.

The park is an old Naval Air Station, which means there is a lot of space and a lot of concrete. The campground is split into two sections, A and B or 'Anchor Cove' and 'Battleship Row'.

Anchor Cove is the cheaper of the campgrounds. It has 30-Amp hookups, and gravel/sandy pads. For the big rigs, it has a lot of low trees, sharp turns and plenty of mud when it rains. We took a tour through Anchor Cove, but spent most of our time at Battleship Row.

Battleship Row is the nicer of the two with full hook-ups and 50-amp service. We only used the clubhouse on Battleship row, but it was nice. It was cleaned daily and the washers and dryers actually worked, which is more than I can say for Midway Park at NAS Mid-South (Millington, TN). The campground was quiet even though it was about 75% full. The other campers were a wide variety from retired to full-timers. We camped near a Coastie that had been full-timing since 2008 and loved the park. He did say that the social life was lacking compared to his 2 year stay down in Key West.

Reservations are not accepted and they do have a monthly rate. There are 6 or so sites that face the water that have a 2 week limit and we found that there are two sites that though they do not have entries facing the water, are essentially the same spot without the limit. However, good luck getting into them in a big rig. We made it around the turns and got into one of the two sites, but the other one would be near impossible with our 42 footer. They are also the farthest sites from the clubhouse which means internet signal is poor. Internet is not free either, but has daily, weekly and monthly rates that are reasonable for the service. And yes, they make sure that you only use one computer at a time per account!

The campsites are in the trees at the edge of an old concrete loading area and plane storage area (giant concrete area). There is a boat ramp near and plenty of parking for a boat and trailer nearby. The water is probably around 100 yards from the campsites. There is a nice beach and a playground down the road.

Fishing was great! Plenty of shoreline that is accessible by foot. Having a Kayak would be even better and of course a 20' bay boat with hydraulic jack plate would be ideal. Good luck convincing your spouse to get one :) ! Down by Anchor Cove there is a fishing pier. This was the most successful area for us. We caught a nice trout that was delicious and I couldn't taste any oil either! ( The best bait used is the magic bait I discovered in Charleston that has yet to fail: Red 1/4 oz jig-head with an 'open night' Saltwater Assassin shad (curl tails are the best, but let me know if you can find them because I can't!). There is a place to rent boats, fill propane, and grab some bait as well as a workout facility.

There are several restaurants nearby that have great specials even if you have to eat with the 'older crowd'. I really don't mind that much, but I think sometimes they might mind depending on Steven's current screeching ability. Check out the Shrimp Basket on Perdido, you may be able to catch a good oyster or AYCE special.

Beaches are great on Perdido Key and the crowds are usually minimal. We were there during spring break before and had plenty of beach to ourselves since the spring breakers tend to head towards Pensacola Beach.

Overall, the park was great and I cannot wait to visit again or even better, get stationed down there!

-Steve