Grayton Beach State Park

Grayton Beach State Park
IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
Sugary white sand and clear emerald water are characteristic of the beach at Grayton Beach State Park.

Location	Walton County, Florida, USA
Nearest city	Grayton Beach, Florida
Coordinates	30°18′14″N 86°04′44″W / 30.30389°N 86.07889°W / 30.30389; -86.07889Coordinates: 30°18′14″N 86°04′44″W / 30.30389°N 86.07889°W / 30.30389; -86.07889
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection

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. Its sister park is Deer Lake State Park.

The 2,200 acres (9 km²) of land for the park was obtained from a lease from the Florida Board of Education in 1964 and opened in 1968. A separate unit of the park located one mile (1.6 km) west of the main park offers duplex cabins for rent and also has beach access.

About Grayton Beach

Grayton Beach State Park is one of the most popular parks in the state of Florida. Salt marshes, sea oat covered dunes, crystal-white sand, and blue-green waters make up this state park. Western Lake, the second largest coastal dune lake in the Florida Panhandle, is just one of the many coastal dune lakes that visitors see while driving down Scenic Highway 30A. This park also offers facilities for swimming, fishing, snorkeling, and camping. Grayton Beach provides visitors with lots of different activities. This park covers a 2,200 acre area. Included in this 2,200 acres is space for recreational vehicle and tent camping as well as 30 cabins accommodating up to six people.

Recreational activities

The park has such amenities as beaches, bicycling, birding, boating, canoeing, fishing, hiking, kayaking, picnicking areas, swimming, wildlife viewing and full camping facilities.

History

According to the Coastal Heritage Preservation Foundation, in 1885, Army major Charles T. Gray was the first to settle the land now known as Grayton Beach. During this time, the federal government owned most of the land so people had little reason to settle there. The soil was way too sandy to farm, and better timber was located inland. The closest settlement was around five miles to the north. This settlement was located at Point Washington on Choctawhatchee Bay. In 1890, Army General William Miller and William Wilson became Gray’s neighbors. They mapped out where the newly found village’s streets and blocks would be constructed. They named the new area Grayton Beach, after Charles T. Gray. In 1913, W. H. Butler and his son Van R. Butler made the day-long trip from DeFuniak Springs to Grayton Beach. Soon thereafter the Butler family became the community’s leading promoter. In 1926, a major hurricane swept through the area creating Destin’s East Pass. This storm flattened most of the dunes, which left the beach flat. At the beginning of the 1930s, Highway 98 was completed, Highway 331’s bridge was built, and the Intracoastal Waterway was cut through Walton County, which made Grayton Beach and South Walton (SoWal) County much easier for everyone to get to.

Present day Grayton Beach

Florida has kept Grayton Beach small by surrounding it with all park land. The state used land that it owned east of Grayton to establish the Grayton Beach State Recreation Area in 1967. Florida purchased the village’s beach front, dunes, and forest land to the west and north, after they lobbied with residents for years. Grayton beach consistently remains ranked as one of the most beautiful and pristine beaches in the United States.

References

Ceier, Lori. "A Delightful Journey to Grayton Beach State Park". Retrieved 4 April 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grayton Beach State Park.

Protected areas of Florida

Federal

National Parks	Biscayne Dry Tortugas Everglades

National Memorials	De Soto Fort Caroline

National Monuments	Castillo de San Marcos Fort Matanzas

National Seashores	Canaveral Gulf Islands

National Forests	Apalachicola Choctawhatchee Ocala Osceola

National Wildlife Refuges	Archie Carr Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee Caloosahatchee Cedar Keys Chassahowitzka Crocodile Lake Crystal River Egmont Key Florida Panther Great White Heron Hobe Sound Island Bay J.N. 'Ding' Darling Key West Lake Wales Ridge Lake Woodruff Lower Suwannee Matlacha Pass Merritt Island National Key Deer Okefenokee Passage Key Pelican Island Pine Island Pinellas St. Johns St. Marks St. Vincent Ten Thousand Islands

Other National Protected Areas	Big Cypress National Preserve Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

National Estuarine Research Reserves and National Marine Sanctuaries	Apalachicola NERR Florida Keys NMS Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Rookery Bay NERR

State

Parks	Amelia Island Anastasia Avalon Bahia Honda Bald Point Big Lagoon Big Shoals Big Talbot Island Bill Baggs Cape Florida Bulow Creek Caladesi Island Camp Helen Cayo Costa Collier-Seminole Colt Creek Curry Hammock Delnor-Wiggins Pass Devil's Millhopper Don Pedro Island Eden Gardens Egmont Key Falling Waters Faver-Dykes Florida Caverns Fort Clinch Fort Cooper Fort George Island Fort Pierce Inlet Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou Gasparilla Island George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier Grayton Beach Henderson Beach Highlands Hammock Honeymoon Island Hontoon Island Hugh Taylor Birch John D. MacArthur Beach John Pennekamp Coral Reef John U. Lloyd Beach Jonathan Dickinson Little Talbot Island Long Key Lovers Key Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Mike Roess Gold Head Branch North Peninsula O'Leno Oscar Scherer Perdido Key Sebastian Inlet Skyway Fishing Pier St. Andrews St. George Island St. Joseph Peninsula Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center Stump Pass Beach Tomoka Torreya Windley Key Fossil Reef

Botanical Garden Parks	Alfred B. Maclay Gardens Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Lignumvitae Key Ravine Gardens Washington Oaks

Lakes, Rivers and Springs Parks	Deer Lake Lake Griffin Lake June in Winter Scrub Lake Kissimmee Lake Louisa Lake Manatee Lake Talquin Alafia River Blackwater River Dunns Creek Econfina River Hillsborough River Little Manatee River Myakka River Ochlockonee River Oleta River Suwannee River Blue Spring De Leon Springs Edward Ball Wakulla Springs Fanning Springs Homosassa Springs Wildlife Ichetucknee Springs Lafayette Blue Springs Madison Blue Spring Manatee Springs Ponce de Leon Springs Rainbow Springs Silver Springs Three Rivers Troy Springs Weeki Wachee Springs Wekiwa Springs Werner-Boyce Salt Springs Wes Skiles Peacock Springs

Recreation Areas	Gamble Rogers Memorial

Museums, Historic sites, and Archaeological sites	Cedar Key Museum Constitution Convention Museum Forest Capital Museum John Gorrie Museum Ybor City Museum The Barnacle Bulow Plantation Ruins Dade Battlefield Dudley Farm Fort Foster Fort Mose Fort Zachary Taylor Gamble Plantation Indian Key Koreshan Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Homestead Natural Bridge Battlefield Olustee Battlefield Orman House Paynes Creek San Marcos de Apalache Yellow Bluff Fort Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Crystal River Lake Jackson Mounds Letchworth-Love Mounds Madira Bickel Mound Mound Key San Pedro Underwater

Preserves and Reserves	Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Anclote Key Cedar Key Scrub Charlotte Harbor Crystal River Estero Bay Fakahatchee Strand Kissimmee Prairie Lower Wekiva River Paynes Prairie Pumpkin Hill Creek River Rise Rock Springs Run San Felasco Hammock Savannas Seabranch St. Lucie Inlet St. Sebastian River Tarkiln Bayou Topsail Hill Waccasassa Bay Yellow River Marsh

State Trails	Blackwater Heritage Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Gainesville-Hawthorne General James A. Van Fleet Nature Coast Palatka-Lake Butler Palatka-to-St. Augustine Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad Withlacoochee

State Forests	Belmore Big Shoals Blackwater River Carl Duval Moore Cary Charles H. Bronson Cottage Hill Deep Creek Etoniah Creek Four Creeks Goethe Holopaw Indian Lake Jennings John M. Bethea Lake George Lake Talquin Lake Wales Ridge Little Big Econ Matanzas Myakka Okaloacoochee Slough Picayune Strand Pine Log Point Washington Ralph E. Simmons Memorial Ross Prairie Seminole Tate's Hell Tiger Bay Twin Rivers Wakulla Watson Island Welaka Withlacoochee

Other

Nature centers	List of nature centers in Florida

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.