The Fort Morgan Trail Finally Has a West End Worth Riding To

"When you visit Gulf State Park, you have access to all these trails that go from Orange Beach to halfway down the Fort Morgan Peninsula," Alabama State Parks Director Matthew Capps said in a Gulf Coast Media piece by David Rainer published September 11, 2026. "We now have almost 40 miles of trails."

The key words are "halfway down the peninsula." The Fort Morgan Trail used to end at a golf club entrance. As of August 28, 2026, it runs another 4.4 miles west and ends at a trailhead with its own bathhouse, right next to a pizza place. A trail that used to be an out-and-back from Gulf Shores now has a real destination at its west end. That change matters more than the added miles.

Where the old trail stopped

The Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism biking guide still describes the original layout. It starts at the intersection of AL-59 and AL-180 by the Rouses shopping center and runs west 5.4 miles one way to Peninsula Golf and Racket Club. The guide was updated September 16, 2026, but that description fits the trail before the extension, not today's route.

Alabama State Parks puts the full Fort Morgan Trail at about 10.5 miles along Alabama Highway 180, which most people call Fort Morgan Road. The new section starts at Plantation Boulevard and continues west to a terminus near Fort Morgan Pizza. WKRG put the end point near Ewing Place. The whole trail is paved and 10 feet wide.

The numbers from the two sources don't add up exactly. The guide's 5.4 miles plus the state's 4.4-mile extension comes to 9.8, which is short of the state's total of about 10.5. The guide may measure the original section from a different starting point. The state's 10.5 is the official length of the trail as it stands now.

The route, east to west

Here is the trail in order, using the landmarks the sources name:

1. AL-59 and AL-180, by the Rouses shopping center. The eastern start, as the tourism guide describes it.
2. The Gulf State Park connection. The Fort Morgan Trail links to the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail system, a network of roughly 28 miles of paved trail that runs through the park and on into Orange Beach. None of the published sources name the exact junction, so check a park map for that.
3. Lagoon Park and Mo's Landing, 18068 Fort Morgan Road. TrailLink lists parking here.
4. Peninsula Golf and Racket Club. The old end of the trail.
5. Plantation Boulevard. Where the August 2026 extension starts.
6. The 12 wetland bridges. The state built them along the extension so the path crosses coastal wetlands without disturbing them. A Josh Bean photo in the Gulf Coast Media story shows a large live oak towering over the new section.
7. The western trailhead near Ewing Place and Fort Morgan Pizza. The new end of the trail.

What the new west end gives you

The new trailhead has a bathhouse with four private, family-style suites. On the old trail, the next restroom after a long ride west was back where you started. A family can now ride out, stop, and ride back without planning around that.

Fort Morgan Pizza is at 9989 Alabama Highway 180, next to the trailhead, and its website says the usual wait is about 10 minutes. That's about how long it takes to lock up a bike and wash your hands. Its site had no post-storm hours notice when we checked, so call ahead this week.

Trail parking at either end is now listed in public sources:

The sources don't say whether the western trailhead parking and the bathhouse share one lot. Either way, both sit at the western end of the trail. If you live west of Plantation Boulevard, you can now start at that end and ride east toward the park and the Backcountry Trail, instead of driving into Gulf Shores to begin.

Why the trail goes through land the state has been buying

The extension cost $5.6 million, paid for by the federal RESTORE Act. That law directs Clean Water Act penalties from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to Gulf Coast restoration. The trail is one piece of a larger peninsula project.

Conservation Commissioner Chris Blankenship listed that project in the Gulf Coast Media article. The state has 11 oil spill restoration projects on the Fort Morgan Peninsula worth more than $88 million. They include 99 acres preserved at historic Pilot Town, 836 acres on Oyster Bay, and 487 acres in the Navy Cove and Three Rivers section of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. They also include new public access inside the refuge and the rebuilding of the Steve McMillan Fort Morgan Pier. The article also names two earlier purchases, Gulf Highlands in 2018 and Beach Club West in 2024, which together cover 192 acres with 2,700 feet of Gulf frontage. In total, more than 1,660 acres of coastal habitat on the peninsula are now protected.

Read alongside that list, the trail looks like the first public path through a peninsula the state has spent years protecting. "There's no place more beautiful, I think, in the state of Alabama, than the Fort Morgan Peninsula," Blankenship told WKRG at the August 28 ribbon cutting.

The trail it connects to has its own track record. Capps noted that the Hugh Branyon trail has been named the top recreational trail in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards three years running. The Fort Morgan Trail now leads into that system from the west.

Where things stand after Isaias

On October 8, Alabama issued a mandatory evacuation for non-residents, tourists and visitors south of the Intracoastal Waterway in Baldwin County ahead of Hurricane Isaias. That area included Gulf Shores and Gulf State Park, and the park closed. Gulf Coast Media reported on October 10 that the storm came ashore to the east as a strong Category 2 and that Baldwin County avoided the worst of it. The paper also reported downed trees, power outages and debris cleanup across the county.

Gulf State Park reopened its main areas, beaches and trails at 2 p.m. on October 10. The Fishing Pier and campground pools stayed closed while crews kept working, and the park asked visitors to obey all barricades and restricted-area signs. The Lodge at Gulf State Park is open, but its restaurants are on a limited schedule. As of this morning, October 11, the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism situation page says visitors can return to Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan. Cleanup and power restoration are still underway, and the page asks drivers to take it slow.

No agency has published a damage report for the Fort Morgan Trail itself. The reopening notice covers trails in general. Branches on the pavement or a closed bathhouse door are possible for the first ride out, especially on the wooded stretches.

The park's own restaurants are an option for the ride back. The Lodge has Roasted Oak Coffee & Wine Bar, and Woodside is near the park headquarters. With dining on a limited schedule this week, check hours before planning a stop.

What hasn't been announced

At the opening, officials told WKRG to expect plenty more expansion of the trail in the future. No route, timeline or funding source has been made public. The trail now reaches about halfway down the peninsula, the fort itself is still farther west, and that last stretch has no announced plan.

We've watched Fort Morgan Road change for years, and a paved trail with a bathhouse at Ewing Place is one of the bigger changes we've seen. If you're thinking about which parts of the peninsula now sit within biking distance of Gulf State Park, The Leigh McPherson Team is happy to walk through that with you. That includes which streets are closest to the new western trailhead.