Nature preserve
Last updated
The only piece of the national seashore in Mississippi with a road to it: oaks, boardwalks, a bayou and a staffed visitor centre.
Photo: BreaultPublic domain
The national seashore that Biloxi shares a coastline with is mostly out of reach. Its Mississippi district is five barrier islands lying ten to twelve miles offshore, one of which has a seasonal ferry and four of which need your own boat. Davis Bayou is the exception, and it is the reason this page exists: a mainland unit on the far side of Biloxi Bay at Ocean Springs, with a car park, a visitor centre and a path, about twenty minutes from the Biloxi Lighthouse.
It is a quiet place and it does not oversell itself. Live oaks lean over the road in, slash pine stands behind them, and the ground falls away into a brackish bayou that drains into the Mississippi Sound. Short trails and timber boardwalks run out over the water and the marsh edge. There is a campground with hookups back in the trees, a picnic area with pavilions and grills, a boat launch that gets you into the bayou system and out to the Sound, and a fishing pier near the visitor centre.
The William M. Colmer Visitor Center is the practical stop. It carries the exhibits that explain the barrier-island system you cannot get to, has an observation deck over the bayou, and is staffed by rangers who know what the water and the islands are doing this week. If you are trying to work out whether a trip to Ship Island is worth the ferry fare, this is a better source than any website.
Two park rules catch people out. Fishing is from the designated pier only, and you need a Mississippi licence. Swimming is not permitted anywhere in Davis Bayou; this is a bayou with alligators in it, not a swimming beach, and the Park Service is unambiguous about it.
Set aside an hour and a half and treat it as what it is: shade, birds, an unhurried boardwalk and the only free national park land within half an hour of a casino floor.
From Biloxi, cross the Biloxi Bay Bridge on US 90 towards Ocean Springs and keep going east past the downtown turn. The entrance to the Davis Bayou Area is signed off US 90 at Park Road, a few miles beyond the bridge. Allow twenty minutes from the lighthouse in ordinary traffic and rather more on a Saturday, when US 90 through Ocean Springs moves slowly.
Parking is on site and free, both at the visitor centre and at the picnic and pier areas further in. The road through the unit is paved and the campground sits back in the pines.
There is no public transport that usefully serves it, and it is too far to walk from downtown Ocean Springs in summer heat. Cyclists can ride out along US 90, but the shoulder is variable and the traffic is not slow.
Nothing here is long. The trails at Davis Bayou run in the range of a few hundred yards to about a mile, over flat sandy ground and raised timber boardwalk, and a fit walker could see the whole unit in ninety minutes without hurrying.
What changes the experience is the hour. Early morning brings herons, egrets and wading birds onto the marsh edge within a few metres of the boardwalk rail. Late afternoon brings the light through the oaks and the mosquitoes at the same time. The middle of a July day brings heat, still air under the canopy and very little wildlife, because everything sensible has stopped moving.
Take insect repellent between April and October and mean it. This is brackish marsh in a subtropical climate; the mosquitoes are not a complaint you can walk off.
If somebody in your group has limited mobility, the visitor centre area, the pier and the shorter boardwalk sections are the part to aim at. The sandier trail sections are flat but loose.
Davis Bayou has resident American alligators. They are usually visible as a shape holding station in the water off the boardwalk, and they are one of the reasons the Park Service prohibits swimming anywhere in the bayou. Keep dogs leashed and away from the water's edge, do not feed anything, and do not clean fish at the launch.
Fishing is allowed from the designated pier and nowhere else in the unit, and a Mississippi saltwater licence is required for anyone old enough to need one. The pier fishes best on a moving tide; the bayou drains to the Sound and the bait moves with it.
The boat launch gives access to the bayou system, the Back Bay and, for a capable boat, the open Sound. It is not a route to the barrier islands for a small craft. The islands are ten to twelve miles out across open water, and the crossing has killed people who underestimated it.
One more: this is federal land, so drone use, collecting and the discharge of anything are governed by Park Service regulations rather than by Mississippi rules. Check before you fly anything.
A fair question, and the honest answer has three parts.
The first is time. A Ship Island crossing is most of a day and the boat only runs in the warm months. Davis Bayou is ninety minutes, year-round, and free to walk into.
The second is weather. When a summer thunderstorm shuts the Sound down, or a winter front makes the crossing miserable, this is the version of the national seashore that still works.
The third is the exhibits. The barrier islands are an unusual system — low, migrating sand islands that move west along the coast over decades — and standing on one of them does not explain that. The visitor centre does.
If you are choosing between them and have only one day and good weather in the ferry season, take the island. If you have a spare morning, a car and small children, take this.
Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Neighbourhood
Two miles east across Biloxi Bay: galleries, live oaks, a walkable main street and the site of the first French settlement on this coast.
2–6 hoursFree to visit. Galleries are free to browse; the museum and Shearwater are separate.2.5 mi away
Museum
The murals a painter locked in a small room and told nobody about, fifteen minutes from the Biloxi casinos.
1–2 hoursPaid admission, with reduced rates for students and children and free days offered periodically.2.5 mi away
Water feature
The sheltered estuary behind the peninsula, where the shrimp grow up and the fleet goes to hide from hurricanes.
0.5–4 hoursFree. Public ramps, bridges and shoreline access cost nothing, though some ramps may charge for launching.5.7 mi away
Nature preserve
Four hundred acres of state-owned pine and marsh a short paddle off the beach road, with no ferry, no dock and nothing built on it.
2–5 hoursFree. The cost is the boat.4.6 mi away
Where this place fits into a day, and the pages that plan one.
Guide hub
Biloxi is confusing for about an hour and then it makes complete sense. You arrive on a four-lane highway with water on one side and casino towers…
Guide hub
Almost everything on this list is on one road or reached from it. US 90 runs the length of the Biloxi peninsula with the Mississippi Sound on the…
Who it suits
Bringing children to a casino city sounds like a category error and it is not, but it does require knowing three things that nobody tells you at…
Budget
Most coastal towns charge you for the privilege of arriving. A beach parking permit, a per-hour lot, a chair-and-umbrella concession that owns the…
Things to do
A national seashore usually means a car park, a visitor centre and a path to the sand. The Mississippi district of Gulf Islands National Seashore is…
Guide
Biloxi sits on Interstate 10 between two great southern cities, with a national seashore and a rocket test site in between. Here is what each one actually costs you in time.
8 min readCorinne Ladner
Guide
Twenty-six miles of engineered sand, no surf, brown water and no shade. Here is how to use it well, where the real Gulf beaches are, and when to admit you want a different coast.
9 min readRhett Vuong
Guide
Twelve miles offshore, an hour on the boat, a brick fort standing in clear Gulf water, and almost no shade on the entire island. Plan it as an expedition.
9 min readRhett Vuong
The Davis Bayou Area on the mainland at Ocean Springs has been free to enter and walk, which is unusual for a unit of this national seashore; the Florida district charges. Camping in the Davis Bayou campground is charged and reserved separately, and the ferry to West Ship Island is a commercial ticket run by an authorised concessionaire. Fees and reservation systems change, so confirm with the National Park Service before you set out.
No. Swimming is not permitted anywhere in Davis Bayou, and the reason is straightforward: this is brackish bayou with resident alligators, not a beach. Fishing is allowed from the designated pier only and needs a Mississippi licence. If you want to swim within reach of Biloxi, the mainland beach along US 90 is the convenient option and West Ship Island, eleven miles offshore, is the one with clear Gulf water.
An hour and a half covers the visitor centre, the boardwalks, the pier and a short trail at an unhurried pace. Two to three hours if you are birding, picnicking or taking children who stop at everything. It is a small unit and it does not pretend otherwise, which is part of why it works as a morning rather than a day out.
No, and this trips people up regularly. The seasonal passenger ferry to West Ship Island sails from Gulfport, roughly twenty-five minutes west of Davis Bayou along US 90, and it serves West Ship Island only. Davis Bayou has a boat launch for private craft, but the barrier islands are ten to twelve miles out across open water and that crossing is not one to attempt in a small boat on a whim.