On Grayton Beach, boaters bring their rigs right down onto the beach and launch.
Grayton Beach has a certain directness about it. It’s a small town. People are friendly, the beach is beautiful, and fishing is, it seems, the major recreational activity. While we lay about on the beach, 4-wheel-drive trucks and jeeps with boats in tow streamed right out onto the deep, soft, white sugar sand. They brazenly backed the trailers right out into the gulf and launched their boats into the crystal clear emerald green waters. No ramp, no dock, no parking lot. Getting the boat back onto the trailer was often a perilous venture, and I saw more than one truck nearly go for a swim. All in a day’s fishing.
Florida sand? Or is it Arctic ice?
Walking along the beach one evening I turned around and looked at the white sand beach scarp. From this angle it looks a lot like the photos I see of an Arctic ice shelf. Only a lot warmer. A shallow tide pool reflects the white sand scarp. Cars are allowed on the beach in a limited area. The deep sand is suitable only for 4-wheel-drive.
Grayton Beach has some really beautiful sand dunes.
The dunes are really photogenic, especially in the mornings and evenings when shadows are long. Because of the frequency of hurricane strikes in the panhandle, tall dunes play a very important role in protecting the coast from storm surges. Some areas in the panhandle have leveled their dunes and have paid the price.
The sand on Florida panhandle beaches is a joy to walk in.
Some of the whitest beach sand is found in the Florida panhandle. It is slightly larger-grained than sand further down the peninsula, and is pure quartz crystals. I love to dig my feet into it. And yes, those are my feet, luxuriating in the quartz crystals and bathed in the warm glow of sunset. There is, however, a fly in the ointment. In fact, you can see the fly on my right foot, not far from my big toe. No ordinary fly, this. It is the infamous “dog fly,” and it has a sharp and painful bite. So annoying were they, that I wrote a whole blog post about dog flies on Florida panhandle beaches. You should read it if you are planning to visit the panhandle beaches during the summer or fall months.
