Perdido Key State Park occupies 247 acres on the barrier island of Perdido Key, southwest of Pensacola, with wide white-sand beaches, rolling dunes, and a Gulf-front landscape. The park shows how barrier islands protect the Florida Panhandle by buffering the mainland from storms while sustaining coastal habitats. Boardwalks help protect fragile dunes and sea-oat vegetation as visitors use the area for swimming, sunbathing, surf fishing, and picnicking. The park is also vital for wildlife, especially the rare Perdido Key beach mouse, reintroduced there in 2000, and for nesting sea turtles, including loggerheads and occasionally green and Kemp’s ridley turtles.