Dauphin Island Times

Take a ride on the river for your next vacation

If your vacation plans this year involve staying within the US you might want to consider taking a trip to experience some of the most unspoiled and beautiful natural settings North America has to offer. I'm talking about making the Northwest your summer vacation destination this year. The vistas will take your breath away.

And if you want to experience it at its most thrilling, allow me to suggest floating down either of the two most scenic rivers the Northwest has to offer. The big theme parks have nothing to compete with the peaceful solace, the incredible beauty and if you want to go for it, the thrilling ride you can experience on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho and the Rogue River in Oregon.

The good people at Oregon River Rafting asked me to recommend them to our visitors here and I heartily agreed to do it. I've been on one of these rafting adventures in the past, and I have to tell you, there is nothing that quite compares.

Once and again Dauphin Island Vacation

We just got back from a week long vacation on Dauphin Island. I have never felt so relaxed in my entire life!

We used to go there when I was young. Daddy loved to fish from the shore. I don't think he ever caught much but that's what he loved to do on his weekends off. We would go to the beach with him and make sand castles. My older bother Ted would almost always run up the beach from the water all dripping wet and jump right in the middle of our castle.

More of the beauty of Dauphin Island

Rob Nykvist was up early recently and captured some of Dauphin Island's early morning beauty.

If you check his web site you'll find that one of his most recent kayaking adventures started out from Dauphin Island before sunrise. Rob's photos of the Dauphin Island sunrise from out on the Gulf of Mexico are simply stunning.

The image is one of the pop-up storms which took place later in the morning. Check Rob's site for other photos of far away storms, Dauphin Island beaches and a few glimpses of the life and beauty of Dauphin Island.

Dauphin Island Beauty

There are so many things to see and do on Dauphin Island. You only need to give up the need for over-stimulation, to decide to take a relaxing, get away from it all king of vacation to realize all that Dauphin Island has to offer.

Rob Nykvist recently took a few hours to remind us just how beautiful this place is to those of us who call it our vacation home away from home.

This shot of a Morning Glory bloom was taken in late August on Dauphin Island, the height of the summer season.

For more shots like this one and to read a complete recap of Rob's recent tour around Dauphin Island by Kayak you should visit his web site here.

Dauphin Island by Kayak

Mobile Area paddler Rob Nykvist has been out and around Dauphin Island in his kayak again recently.

Remember late last year when Sand Island, also known as Pelican Island, had grown to intersect the Dauphin Island Fishing Pier? We enjoyed the idea of building stairs from the end of the pier to the sand below. Well that no longer looks like it was such a good idea. Rob's photos clearly shows that Sand Island is now no easy walk from the Dauphin Island Fishing Pier.

One of the photos on Rob's site also offers a good view from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico of the Holiday Isle condo development in progress. The Dauphin Island Beach Club and The Inn at Dauphin Island are the condo buildings immediately to the left, or west, of the Holiday Isle construction site.