Travel - Deer Lake State Park

Deer Lake State Park is in south Walton County, Santa Rosa Beach, NW Florida. The 2009-acre park contains Deer Lake, a rare coastal dune lake that opens and closes to the salt waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The park also contains the headwaters and north part of Camp Creek Lake (also a coastal dune lake). The park comprises several plant communities until meeting the border with Point Washington State Forest to the north. These pages start in 2002 and go on. During 2018, 2017 and 2016 the park has been deep into restoration, funded by a RESTORE grant from the BP oil spill in addition to Unit Mangagement Plan Update.

For links to the sub-section pages, alternative to the topics below, see a chronological list of pages.

Each item is listed as to where, when - what, media. The oldest items are last and new items appear at the top of the list. Some photos are stitched together 360-degree panoramas which are no longer supported by browsers. I must remove them. Note number 9 is not on the map, which is just part of the southern portion of the park. The larger northern portion is not all shown. Here are some maps showing the whole park area. Note that any coordinates of the pushpin locations are approximate. Especially, the inoutfall is constantly changing location. These links are listed by topic or location. Alterntively, see a chronological listing.

• 10. years: 2010, 2011 Advice to a Trasher or Fish Life on the Edge. Lake2LakeNorth. 2013 Turtle Crawl, panorama dunes N and Back to Nature Festival. 2015 Full moonrises and sets.
• 9. whole park, April 2008 - New leaf in old deer lichen, Trail Trekkers 408 and Access photos. 2009: Spiral labyrinth. 2010: Buddhists in the Woods, Earthballs. 2012: New leaf in old deer lichen 2012
• 8. lake, March Equinox 2004 - Bridge over the lake QTVR. 2006: Transportation QTVR. Dead Wood Duck photo. Purple Light movie. Culvert, 2010. Standing Meditation, Tree-Wise, 201.
• 7. beach, August 2003 - Red dawn over outfall image. Gulf, March, 2006 - My Tidal Waves. Gulf, April, 2006 - Emeraldiest photo, Inoutfall, April, 2009 - Fresh Water Meets Sea, video. Edge, March 2010, photo. After Oil. 2012 Spiral and Eclipse. 2014 Sunrise and Eclipse Meditation.
• 6. dunes, March Equinox 2003 - After the fence QTVR
• 5. beach, March 2003 - Beach Squeak, Flash sound track or Beach Squeak Walker. December, 2005 - TLM Sending Blessings, Crabs, Flash and images at Blessings Beach, new stairs
• 4. dunes N, January, 2003 - Dune access QTVR
• 3. beach path, June Solstice 2002 - Beach access QTVR
• 2. dunes S, June Solstice 2002 - Dunes access QTVR
• 1. dunes, March Equinox 2002 - Before the fence QTVR

In 2009 there was a danger that Florida would close this beloved and valuable park for the short term goal of saving about $5,000 annual maintenance. The park remains open with the addition of an honor use fee collection box at the entry to the parking lot. In 2010 news is that the park has minimal expense and is self-supporting. In 2011 the Florida state budget for the environment was cut down, some parks might be closed or sold, so any way you can befriend this park will help keep it in existence. See Alert for contacts.

For context, see the external Florida State Park pages. Or join a Facebook group: I <HEART> Deer Lake State Park.

See the Florida travel page.