Santa Rosa Beach is where Topsail Hill Preserve State Park is located. It’s a favorite because it has an incredible beach, plenty of roads and trails to walk for hours, and is close to Destin and Grayton Beach. Even though Topsail is pricey and sites are more crowded for a state park, the sites and roads are paved and they offer full service, other than WIFI. It’s our second stay here, third in the area. We love the beaches and all the great amenities that Destin has to offer.
Santa Rosa Beach
Santa Rosa Beach is between Destin and Grayton Beach. The area is more rural and sedate compared to Destin, but it is so nice to have the bars/restaurants and shopping that Destin has to offer. The entire coastline is amazing. Huge white sand beaches that go on for miles. This time of the year, not at all crowded.
Topsail Hill State Preserve, Santa Rosa Beach
They have full hookups but not WIFI. We arrived when it was raining and in the 40s. Our 50 amp pedestal was not working. One of the limbs was out, so a maintenance worker replaced the circuit breaker. We still needed to use our booster, because we couldn’t run the coffee machine with the heat pump or heater without the voltage dropping below 112 and tripping a circuit breaker. We plugged in our Hughes Autoformer which kept the voltage above 120 and all the electronics happy. In the past we stayed in the 100 sites which are a bit larger and more private.
A squirrel frequented this tree about 2 feet behind the Airstream, which ended up in staring matches with Jake. The squirrel taunted him with his tail flicking!
We stayed during Christmas. Decorations were everywhere.
The beach is a 0.7 mile walk from the campground. There is a shuttle, but dogs aren’t allowed on the shuttle or on the beach. The beach is amazing. The town of Destin is in the distance.
There are miles of hiking trails, either paved roads or sand. Jake watched a group of deer chasing each other. Longleaf pine are prevalent throughout the park. They were once used for masts in sailing ships and the sap used to seal the cracks in the hulls. The seeds and inner bark are edible if you are ever in a pinch.
Powderpuff lichen. It’s also apparently edible, but tastes like aspirin so they say. It reminds me of the stuff we used as kids to landscape our HO slot car tracks.
Coastal dunes lakes are very rare and unique to the area. They form from rainwater.
We met Jen and Billy when we were in the Schoodic peninsula of Acadia National Park in Maine our first year RVing. It was really nice getting together again and catching up. They have a converted Greyhound Bus that’s pretty cool. They are taking a break and live in the Destin area now. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon.
Grayton Beach
One of the perks of Grayton Beach is it’s dog friendly. We stayed at Grayton Beach before and it is nice to come back and explore the area more.
We enjoyed the murals and a nice pier.
Grayton Beer Company was open Christmas Eve so we stopped in for a beer and pretzels to tide us over for dinner.
