Looking west into Grayton Beach State Park located in South Walton County on Florida's scenic Highway 30A
Our family vacations on the Gulf Coast almost every summer. Our favorite stretch of beach there is in south Walton county, Florida. There are several beach communities there that are beautiful and each has its own distinct character. We were there this summer over the Fourth of July holiday. It was fun to see all of the buildings decked out in red, white, and blue bunting and people in their patriotic clothing. There were fireworks nearby on both Friday and Saturday night of the holiday weekend. As we watched from a boardwalk leading out to the beach we could see the fireworks displays from many of the other beach communities up and down the beach from us. Our nephew Nathan joined us for the week. We were concerned about impact from the oil spill in the Gulf but honestly we never saw any oil the entire week. The only evidence of the spill was the constant stream of boats, airplanes, and clean-up workers patrolling the beach. It seemed to us that the crowds were at 80 to 100 percent of normal. Maybe a few less people were there during the week but the holiday weekend was as full as normal.
I focused on taking shots of fireworks but didn’t come up with anything that I really liked. I’ve seen some amazing fireworks images, but I’ve never taken many that I’m proud of. Oh well, that gives me something to look forward to. I did manage to capture a few good to great images of sunset on the beach. The place where we stay is adjacent to Grayton Beach State Park. The park makes a good natural foreground as you look west toward Destin. My shots have those towers in the distance but hopefully they don’t distract from the beauty of the setting sun over the white sand beaches of the park.
You can view those images here.
Rick Holliday 