The Port Of Galveston

posted by admin on Mar 13

I first thought it was the composition of the sand, as I was directly comparing Gulf Coast beaches in Northwest Florida such as those in Pensacola, Destin, and Panama City (which all have sugary-white sand), to the beach at South Padre Island, Texas (which has darker beige sand). But then I looked at photos of beaches near Northwest Florida but in the adjacent states of Alabama and Mississippi — Dauphin Island/Mobile and Gulf Shores in Alabama and Biloxi in Mississippi. Those beaches have the same nice white sand that the Florida beaches do but the water colour is different. In Northwest Florida, the water is a tropical emerald blue-green colour, as you’d find in the Carribean or the Bahamas, while the water in Alabama and Mississippi (and Texas) is mostly a dull, dark blue-brownish colour. It seems like the proverbial God has blessed Florida with better beaches than the other Gulf Coast states, even when these other states’ beaches are just miles away from the beautiful ones in Florida. What’s the deal? The muddy Mississippi River empties out southeastward in Louisiana west of all the beaches in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, so I’m not sure it greatly affects those beaches, and South Padre Island in Texas is far, far south of the Mississippi River’s mouth (and away from the direction that it empties out), so it would seem unlikely that the river would have much impact on the colour of the water in Texas. South Padre Island is even Texas’s most beautiful beach (which still doesn’t compare to those in Northwest Florida), with beaches farther north on the state’s Gulf Coast such as Port Aransas and Galveston being uglier and browner. Why have Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi been shafted when it comes to beach beauty while Florida has taken all the blessings? Obviously, this has to do with Mother Nature, but Nature seems to have been very unfair to all the Gulf Coast states but Florida, if we are to judge.

Actually the beaches in Alabama are normally quite beautiful. There are times, based on currents and weather in the Gulf, when the water is a bit murky or brownish, but most of the time it is extremely blue and occasionally emerald green. I have been to Destin when it was murky as well, I suppose it is more rare in that spot than in Alabama, but you can check out my pictures and see some pretty water on the Gulf Shores beach.