Blue Mountain Beach
Blue Mountain Beach is an unspoiled beach playground along 30-A.
Blue Mountains? At the beach. I think somebody got their map turned around. Maybe the settlers who named this place mistook the dunes for mountains. They’re tall, but not mountains. Must have been a little sun dazed. But this place is different. There’s really neat tropical vegetation here including (here’s a little known fact) the Gulf cost lupine, which lives in the dune scrub and exists in only eight coastal counties in Florida's Panhandle. It’s got fuzzy blue leaves and purplish blue flowers that look like tiny sweet peas. Maybe that’s why the settlers gave the area its unusual name. Blue Mountain Beach also marks the beginning of the Eastern Lake Hike/Bike Trail, which ambles through the rest of South Walton's beach communities. You can take it slow and enjoy the trip past coastal lakes, dense woodlands and architecturally stunning communities that make up the Blue Mountain beach area.
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.
No matter how it got its name, Blue Mountain Beach is a really unspoiled beach playground along 30-A. 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 30-A’s only health food store and cafe. Now that says that there’s not much else there, but within an easy drive you can get to lots of other quaint beach towns. And then come back to this unspoiled environment. If you’re looking to get away to a real getaway, Blue Mountain Beach is just the ticket.
...THIS is where the fun starts!
