Dauphin Island
Island · Dauphin Island, Alabama
A narrow barrier island across the mouth of Mobile Bay, reached by a three-mile bridge from the mainland or by ferry from Fort Morgan. It is quiet and low-rise in a way the Alabama beach towns forty miles east are not, and it carries three quite different things: Fort Gaines, the masonry fort that faced Farragut's fleet in 1864; the Audubon Bird Sanctuary, which is one of the most important trans-Gulf migration landfalls in North America; and a public beach that most visitors have to themselves outside July.
1101 Bienville Boulevard, Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, United States
A public island, reachable at all hours by the toll-free bridge. Individual sites — Fort Gaines, the Estuarium, the beach parking — keep their own hours and fees. The Audubon Bird Sanctuary is free and open daily. The Mobile Bay Ferry to Fort Morgan runs to a published schedule and is weather-dependent.