(Keywords: Paddling, Scuba Diving, Mountain Biking - Florida)
Grayton Beach
Featuring:
Dune Lakes and Flatwoods
Of the South Walton Beaches, Grayton Beach has the most to offer outdoor enthusiasts. Hiking, mountain biking, and scuba diving await your arrival. The food and lodging are pretty good too. Download this GPS map and transfer local knowledge to your handheld device.
Over Labor Day weekend, 2008, I stayed at Hibiscus Coffee and Guest House - a bed and breakfast "just up the street from the finest beaches in America" and down the road from Grayton Beach State Park. The accomodataions were nice, but if I visit the area again, I would camp at the state park, or rent a house closer to the beach.
In the town of Grayton Beach, sugar-white sand drifts into the streets and wooden boardwalks extend over the dunes to the emerald green waters of the Florida's northern Gulf Coast. None of the town's quaint shops, bars, and resturants are too far to walk or ride a bike to. The Red Bar, a popular spot for night life, is a couple of blocks from the beach. and a couple of blocks from the town's boat ramp, which provides easy access to the area's unique dune lakes (see photo of kayakers at right).
Click on the binoculars to see screenshot of DeLorme Topo USA (Version 7) showing the Grayton Beach area with this GPS map (waypoint and track layer) overlayed.
T7.gif (Approx. 70 KB) opens in a new window.
GPS Map
- Download the free GPS Map in GPS eXchange (.gpx) file format, which can be read and transferred to your GPS using free GPS software. (The .gpx file will appear in a new window where you can File > Save as... on your computer)
GPS Map Details
File Name: grayton_beach.gpx (500 KB)
Revised: 18 February 2009
Datum: WGS84
Class A1 Data Classification
Waypoints: Fifteen (15) points of interest (food, lodging, trail heads, dive sites, etc.)
Tracks:
Flatwoods hiking and bike trail
Dive boat trip
More Info
Kayaking - Western Dune Lake seperates the town of Grayton Beach from Grayton Beach State Park. You can step from the town to the state park by wading accross riverlets that cut through the beach between the lake and ocean tide. These dune lakes are very rare, found only in Beaches of South Walton and in remote areas of Africa and Australia.
Mountain Biking - Across the highway from the State Park, Point Washington State Forest covers over 15,000 acres of pine flatwoods. Meandering trails give hikers and mountain bikers access to miles of quiet trails. I rode from the trailhead on 30-A to the trailhead on 395, which is an easy 3.7 miles. On the way back, I took the shortcut that cuts a mile off the ride for a total of 6-1/2 miles.
SCUBA Diving - In Destin, about a half-hour drive to the west, you can hook up with a dive operator to SCUBA dive in the Gulf of Mexico. I dove with Scuba Tech, who took us out to the Navy Barge in about 60-65 feet of water. Visibility was less than 30' and obscured even more by large schools of bait fish. I found greater variety of sea life near the Main Stack (bridge rubble) also in about 60 feet of water.
References
Grayton Beach State Park (floridastateparks.org) for the information on access and condition of The Flatwoods Hiking/Biking Trail and access to Dune Lakes.
Yellowfin Ocean Sports (YellowfinOceanSports.com) rents Kayaks and Bikes from their location in Grayton General Store at the corner of Hwy 30A and 283.
In Destin, schedule your dive trip with Scuba Tech (scubatechnwfl.com).
