Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry

A park enhancement that also bears the superintendent’s name. The Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trails offers a view of the park that is often overlooked. "Several years ago, we teamed up with the City of Orange Beach to start a backcountry trail system to go through the wilderness part of the park,” Branyon said. “These are areas that people have no idea are even here. We have beautiful oak hammocks that people are going to just be in awe of when they first see it. The trails run along marshes, secondary sand dunes, swamps, over creeks." The trails are Catman Trail, which runs to Orange Beach, an extension that runs alongside the Orange Beach Sportsplex, the Gulf Park Oak Ridge Trail that runs to the back of the golf course, and the Rosemary Trail, which runs south of Middle Lake and Little Lake and comes out on the beach road. The total distance is 7.8 miles on the trails, which visitors who walk and bike are already enjoying.