Grayton Beach State Park is a Florida State Park located between Panama City Beach and Destin, near the unincorporated area of Grayton Beach, on CR 30A, in northwestern Florida. When thinking of beaches, most people will come up with a similar picture: White sand littered with seashells, a gentle breeze, and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore. But how about a lake sitting just behind the sand dunes? Lakes along the beach aren’t exactly a common sight, but here at Grayton Beach State Park there are three lakes.
Coastal dune lakes are a natural phenomenon that can only be found in four countries around the world, and only two states in the U.S. (the other being Oregon). This makes Walton County, Florida the only place in the state where you can witness this rare phenomenon.
The lakes are fed from several freshwater sources such as rainfall, groundwater and streams. However, when the water levels in the lake reach a certain height, sand berms along the shores of the lake will become breached, and water will travel from the lake to the Gulf of America in channels called outfalls. This isn’t a one-way street, though: Saltwater from the Gulf as well as plants and animals will travel up the outfall into the lake, and the two types of water mix to form brackish water. These outfalls aren’t just important for maintaining the lakes water levels, either. Several species of shorebird, such as snowy plovers and red knots, use the outfalls to forage for food. If you should decide to visit be sure to check out this unique set of lakes.
This is one of our favorite places to camp during the month of February. We were made aware of this campground by some of our relatives who make it a habit to camp there every year to celebrate birthdays of family and friends born in February. We have actually made this our tradition as well now for the last three years and counting. To actually reserve a campsite requires booking it a year in advance. If not mistaken there are only about fifty nine campsites. All the ones we have stayed in are equipped with full hook up, including electric, water, and sewer. They also have two bath houses with showers for those that require it when camping.
Absolutely a great place to camp because of all the things to do there. Hiking, bike riding, laying on the beach, fishing, and in February it’s still fairly cool so not so many insects to contend with. A very quiet place to relax and just chill out and do nothing. 🙂 And OH, access to shopping for whatever your heart desires. Grayton General Store: Located about one mile from the park, ideal for quick convenience items and supplies. Grayton Beach Village: Walkable or accessible via a short bike ride down County Road 283 for local boutique shopping and restaurants and a paved multi-use path running right outside the park along County Road 30A, allowing easy bicycle access to nearby shopping communities like Seaside and Watercolor to the east.
By the way if you happen to venture over to Watercolor, be sure to make a stop at THE CANDY BAR. Name indicates only candy but the wife and I always go there for some of the best ice cream ever. We visit that shop every year, either walk there from the campground or ride our bikes but it’s definitely worth the short trip. And yes we eat ice cream in February. 🙂
Following is a few photos taken at Grayton Beach State Park from some of our camping there.
One of the newest things we have added to our camping is the ability to access wi-fi for all sorts of reasons, one being that many of the campsites we have zero phone signal or sporadic signal at best and since we depended on HOTSPOTS on our phones it was at best rather slim. We have now solved that problem by adding Starlink Mini to our equipment, easy hookup (just plug it in) and always a signal for TV, Phone, Computer or whatever our needs are. Good thing is when we are not camping we can put the mini kit on standby reducing the price to only $10 per month.
We also chose to bundle it all and have Starlink at our home as well. If your’re interested in checking it out for yourself I’ll put the link below for you to check out and get a special deal. Totally worth it. You will not be disappointed.
Starlink One Join using that link and get your second month FREE!
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Ray's Motoring Travels 