Dune Allen is the western-most beach town on Scenic 30-A. It is mainly residential with beachfront vacation homes in the dunes lining both sides of the road.
Blue Mountain Beach
Old Indian legend has it that Blue Mountain Beach got its name from the blue haze you would see at dawn on the hills. The blankets of the blue wildflower Lupine caused the haze, which to the Indians looked like blue mountains on the beach.
Blue Mountain Beach has remained a virtually unspoiled area on 30-A until this day. There is the mysterious Draper Lake, with its large, expansive body of water but with no public access to it. Then there are Alligator Lake and Big Red Fish Lakes, two other smaller dune lakes in the area. You can see lily pads and marsh amongst the windswept oak and pine trees, but probably no alligators or big red fish as the names imply. Blue Mountain Beach is also the home of a bicycle shop and 30A’s only health food store and cafe. There are just a few other commercial businesses in this area and the few permanent residents that live here, prefer it that way.
Stallworth Lake is in Dune Allen and is one of many beautiful dune lakes that you will see on Scenic 30-A. The first of 17 coastal lakes, which are unique to this part of the world. The lakes actually interact with the tides, forming their own biological communities. You'll see them dotted throughout South Walton County. Another coastal lake, Oyster Lake, is actually shaped like an oyster shell, and was once filled with oysters! Families who visited Dune Allen beach on vacation would picnic on its shores, and if the water in the lake was high, the men would dig a trench from the lake to the gulf to get the water running off. The effect was to lower the water level to make it easier to catch fish and gather oysters.
Grayton Beach is the oldest community along the 26 mile stretch of coastline between Destin and Panama City Beach known as the “Beaches of South Walton.” This charming little town has old weathered homes scattered along sandy streets, a couple of good restaurants and a single-road downtown area. Strict building restrictions in Grayton Beach ensure that it maintains its small town feel. Scattered throughout the area are private-home rentals, unique boutiques and art galleries. Further inland, the region is covered with thick pine and hardwood forests, and 14 lakes, making it an ideal spot for anglers. Grayton Beach State Park is one of the most scenic along the Gulf Coast. It’s composed of untouched Florida woodlands, salt marshes, rolling sand dunes, white sand and contrasting blue-green waters. The park offers swimming, fishing, snorkeling, hiking and camping. Worth visiting while in Grayton Beach is Eden Gardens State Park. This antebellum mansion sits amid an arcade of moss-draped live oaks. Furnishings in the mansion date back as far as the 17th century. The surrounding gardens are beautiful year-round, but are exceptional in March when the azaleas and dogwoods are in full bloom
WaterColor is one of two master-planned communities (the other being WaterSound Beach) currently being developed byArvida, a St. Joe company, along Scenic 30-A. The 499-acre resort was designed by acclaimed architect, Jaque Robertson, on land held by the St. Joe Company® since 1927.
A prominent feature of this new community is the WaterColor Inn. The inn (dubbed by Arvida as, "The Coastal Retreat with a Southern Accent") was designed by acclaimed restaurant designer, David Rockwell. Rockwell's impressive accomplishments include designing over 60 Planet Hollywoods. The inn combines the warmth and hospitality associated with traditional Southern grand hotels, the intimacy of bed-and-breakfast inns and the charm of classic beach houses. WaterColor is also home to Fish Out of Water,
Seaside is an unincorporated master-planned community on the Florida panhandle, roughly midway between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City. It was founded by builder/developer Robert Davis on land that he had inherited from his grandfather. The town plan was designed by architects new urbanis Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Seaside is located in Walton County. The community is often cited as the first New Urbanist development. At the time of Seaside's construction, Walton County had no zoning ordinance, leaving Seaside's founders able to plan with a comparatively free hand. In the absence of these regulations (e.g., minimum lot size, separation of uses), Duany and Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) were able to design a mixed-use development with densities greater than conventional suburban development.
DPZ hired architects such as Melanie Taylor and Robert Orr to design the buildings and housing for the development. Seaside is primarily a resort community, consisting of residents who live there for months at a time as well as vacationers renting cottages and houses.
Seaside is often cited as an example of successful implementation of New Urbanism. It has been used as a model for other New Urbanist developments in the United States and abroad. However, some have criticized Seaside as being overly rigid (the community's architectural standards provide strict limitations on the external aesthetics of the houses), resulting in conformity of style rather than creativity -- which some people call a manufactured fantasy.
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Schools in Niceville, Eglin AFB and Destin
