Okaloosa Island Pier

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The Okaloosa Island Pier is on Okaloosa County's parks list and is run by a leaseholder. It extends 1,270 feet into the Gulf of Mexico from 300 Pier Road, next to the Boardwalk, and is used for fishing and for walking out over the water. The leaseholder charges a fee to go out on it. The original pier opened in 1972 at 962 feet. Hurricanes destroyed it repeatedly over the following decades, Opal in 1995 doing the worst of it, and it reopened in 1999 after major rebuilding at the length it holds now, a little over a quarter of a mile. The leaseholder is Angler's Beachside Bar, which sets the fees and posts them. What people fish for changes right through the year, so the pier effectively runs on a calendar most visitors never notice. Walkers go out for the view back along the island and for watching the water below, where rays and sharks are often visible in the clear shallows. Parking sits beside the Boardwalk at the foot of the pier and costs nothing