I was very disheartened to find the condition of the beaches in front of the beach house where we stayed this year. Every evening we watched as the tractor drove on the beach and assumed they were picking trash up. The next morning when we would go to the beach, we found TONS of cigarette butts, t-shirts, mens underwear, beer bottles and other misc. trash. It makes me very sad to see this. We would have to clean up our area before setting down the babies in our group. Why people don't have enough respect to pick up after themselves on such a gorgeous beach, is beyond me. We WERE right next to a public access, which might be one reason, but every day we watched as four hispanic men came to the area right next to us and left behind all kinds of stuff. Not to mention they were very forward about staring at one teenage girl we had with us in our family group. One day we saw them throwing beer bottles in the water
I'm sure this goes on in other areas, it just seems worse to me in the last two years in PCB. Every day after we had been at the beach for several hours, we packed everything up, put trash in a trash bag, or our beach bag, carried umbrellas, chairs, bags, boogie boards (plus children!!) and headed to the house. Why can't everyone do this? Anyone else notice this?

You will get that in public access areas anywhere really, but it sure is a bummer. The cigarette butts are what bothers me the most, but I have never come across any underwear. Sorry to hear about the conditions, but you can do something about it. Call the police station and tell them about the Mexicans always staring, and then ask them the number to the clean up crew and let them know about the beach and they should send someone out to clean it up pretty quick. I hope this helps.

__________________


There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in it's roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more....

I'm sorry to here about your bad experience. I wish that is was rare.

However, this seems to becoming a trend on all beaches. Every week I watch as on family group comes and goes. Too often people have the "I'm on vacation, too hell with the rules" mentality. The leave trash, destroy the dunes and generally act disrespectful. Being a holiday weekend it looks like "tent city" out front, with no room to move. I don't know what the solution is but we need one urgently.

I hope you will visit again and hopefully have a better experience. You might want to try some of the less populated beaches east and west of PCB. They tend to attract older family oriented crowds, which in most cases are more respectful of their environment.

Thank you both for your replies. I hate to complain because I love the beach and my extended family has been going to the same beach house for 25 years. We have been to Blue Mountain Beach, Destin, Gulf Shores Alabama, and PCB. They all had their positives and negatives as far as I'm concerned but for my family, PCB has always been the best fit. I do notice, however, that it IS not as family oriented as say, Destin or Blue Mountain Beach. There are always good and bad points about any vacation area I suppose. I will take the advice given and next time call about the clean-up crew. I just hate to bother, you know, sometimes it seems like beating a dead horse when we can just clean it all up ourselves. It's just sad that people have no more respect than that of their surroundings...

I agree... went tend to get down there during holiday times and I'm routinely disheartened by the lack of respect for the beauty and nature that so many people display. I tend to spend alot of time at Shell Island and St. Andrews Park, the crowd it attracts can be somewhat more respectful, and there is always a spot you can get away by yourself and commune with nature.

I understand what you are saying. Shell Island did seem a lot different than the beach where we spent time. Cleaner, and yes, the people seemed a lot more respectful of the sand and water. The strange thing is...this is our fourth year at PCB, and the last two years seemed really bad for some reason. Maybe it's the type of people coming in.