Grayton Beach State Parkis just east of the unincorporated community of Grayton Beach, FL and sits on approximately 2,200 acres with such amenities as beaches, bicycling, birding, boating, canoeing, fishing, hiking, kayaking, picnicking areas, swimming, wildlife viewing and full camping facilities. This State Park State Park has become one of our favorite campgrounds. Access to the State Park is via CR-30A either by taking CR 30A where it branches off from SR 98 just west of Santa Rosa Beach and follows the shoreline or via CR-283 south from SR 98.
To the west of the entrance to the State Park Grayton Beach is Blue Gulf Beach and Santa Rosa Beach and Grayton Beach; to the east of the entrance to the State Park is the towns of Seagrove Beach, Rosemary Beach, and the unincorporated communities of Blue Mountain Beach, Seaside, and Watercolor. CR-30A rejoins SR 30 near Inlet Beach. Grayton Beach State Park is adjacent to the unincorporated community of Grayton Beach. Proximity to shopping is via CR-30A either to Grayton Beach for specialty shops or east to Watercolor for specialty shops and a supermarket.
There are two areas in the campground at Grayton Beach State Park. We stayed in the original loop of the campground in July, 2009. The original loop has a rustic atmosphere and provides water and electricity only at the campsite. The streets are gravel/fine sand mix. There is a dump station for use by campground guest that includes a water wand for rinsing out the black tank. There is also a dumpster located across the street from the dump station for convenience. The original loop is heavily wooded and the sites are screened very well by the underbrush and trees. The bath house is conveniently located in the center of the loop making it equally convenient to all sites. There are a number of trails that lead from the street to the bath house through the underbrush.
The downside of the original loop is that there are no sewer connections. Knowing this we took our blue tank with us so that we could empty the gray water tank when it became full. As described in our original review of this campground, the soil is sandy making it difficult to transport a 25 gallon tank with narrow wheels from the rear of the trailer to the street. Once at the street, I can hook the tank to the hitch on my truck and slowly tow it to the dump station. However, we decided to utilize the bath house for showers each day and use disposable plates, flatware, and cups to reduce dish washing to conserve our gray water. This isn’t “green” camping, but that is the trade-off when conserving other resources. As it turned out through this careful waste water management system, we were able to delay reaching the full level of our 39 gallon gray tank until our last day of our stay so we didn’t have to use the blue tank.
Additional cons were, as mentioned above, unpaved streets and unpaved sites. We travel with astroturf style patio rugs on such trips and used two that we have to provide a relatively large carpeted area outside of our entry door and around the picnic table. At the time we stayed in the original loop, the picnic tables were wooden tables that were portable. Each site also has a fire ring with grill grate and the power/water pole is lighted making it easier to connect to when arriving late. While the sites are spacious, the street is not. This made it a challenge to back our 30 foot travel trailer into the site, which happened to be at an oblique angle to the curve of the loop. Tom utilized the empty site across the street for a pull into and back across the street scenario. Even with this method, it still took longer than expected to get the trailer situated.
View of rear half of site #39
The new loop is similar in its rustic beauty, but the street is paved and the large sites have large, L-shaped pea-gravel parking pads. The sites are spread out so that there is a great deal of privacy between most sites. The picnic tables in this section are wooden, but they are staked to the ground so they are not portable. The table is located in the “L” of the site giving plenty of room for backing into the site. There is also a fire ring with grill grate on each site as well and as with the original loop, the power/water pole is lighted. There are one or two pull through sites in the new loop, but they had already been reserved for Memorial Day Weekend when Tom made our reservations.
There is a dumpster as you leave the new loop. It is located across the street from the new bath house that sits in the center of the loop. The sites on the inside of the loop back up to the bath house. Several of the sites that back up to the bath house are paved with concrete with sidewalks connecting to the bath house for those who need an ADA campsite with access for wheel chairs and other mobility issues. The bath house is small with only one shower. There were several tents on sites in the new loop so this might be an issue for those campers.
Access point to our site, #39
The new loop was created in an area that had virtually no trees and very little in the way of brush plants. This will probably change over time as new vegetation is introduced and matures. With no trees and little brush between sites, there is no shade for the site, but air does circulate better than in the original loop. We opted not to bring our free standing awning for our short stay so the table was always in the sun and really too hot to use. We took all of our meals at the Airstream’s dinette.
The cons for this new loop really are few. As mentioned above, there is little vegetation and no shade on the sites so the trailer was exposed to full sun during the day. This caused us to trip the main breaker once while the air conditioner was cycling and the micro wave was on. The bath house is small and this may be an issue for those who prefer to use the bath house shower or for those camping in tents. And then there is the issue of backing into the sites. There is nothing to back into on the parking pads, but the angles of entry can make backing a longer trailer in on the blind side challenging after dark. While Tom is experienced in backing in on the blind side, he did feel challenged by the lack of vegetation to give a reference point for location on the parking pad. The parking pads are large, but they are elevated nearly a foot above the surrounding area. Backing off the edge of the parking pad could result in damage or needing a tow truck to get the wheels back up on the parking pad, or both.
The beach is convenient to the both campground loops. Because there is one of the dune lakes between the beach and the camping loops, it is too far to comfortably walk to the beach access board walk, but is neither too far to ride a bi-cycle or too close to justify driving a tow vehicle or toad.
As I said when I started this review, this has become one of our favorite campgrounds. Too bad Atlanta is too far away for this to be a weekend destination for the working folks and families with school aged children as is the case in our family.
This campground is the next best thing to camping right on the beach which is next to impossible in the southeast. Awesome location for families to have a great beach vacation.