By Lawrence Specker

Mobile County’s Bayfront Park features a new playground with a large pavilion.Lawrence Specker

Alabama’s newest public beach recently opened, providing access for swimmers, paddlers, anglers and a nautical-themed playground for children.

Mobile’s reopening of Bayfront Park in Coden comes after a three-year closure and $9.5 million in renovations and improvements funded by Deepwater Horizon disaster fines allocated through the RESTORE Act. The star attraction of the site is a newly constructed, 900-foot-long protected “pocket beach.”

Other new amenities include the playground, parking areas, walking paths, restrooms and park office building. Visitors will find seven small picnic pavilions along a grassy area shaded by pine trees; they overlook a long stretch of white sand protected by rock walls with gaps opening into two sheltered coves. Beyond those are the waters of Mobile Bay, with the Dauphin Island Bridge visible in the distance.

This post was originally published on this site