Taylor County has miles and miles of coastline, but it’s likely you’ve never seen a coastline like theirs. Small beaches, largely unknown and undiscovered by most travelers, are far removed from the main road, and each separated from the next by miles of grasslands and mudflats. Strangely, each gray-tinged waterfront in each small waterfront village is as attractive in its own way as the sugar sand beaches of Panama City.
To reach them, head due south from Perry via Beach Road, the country road to the coast. It’s an 18-mile trip on a long two-lane through the woods, and one of the first signs of civilization is at Adams Beach where a convenience store carries canoes and kayaks. Here and further down the highway, roads branch off to the shore where you can erase nearly everything you associate with Florida’s coast. Here there are no condos, no hotels, and few stores. Aside from handfuls of homes, it is simply nature, unimpeded.
The next community on the coast is Dekle Beach where, aside from a few roads and a few dozen homes perched on towering stilts, there’s little to interrupt the scenic vistas that combine hundreds of acres of seagrass savanna with the endless plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In these remote Florida communities, it’s refreshing to know there are people who desire nothing but privacy and nature.
Comparatively, Keaton Beach is a veritable metropolis. Just two miles south of Dekle, the village is roughly three blocks wide and five blocks long, but that’s enough room for a marina and store, and a boat launch,. At the end of the road leading into town, waterfront Hodges Park has a few retro cool picnic pavilions, a playground, and a small beach (all a little weatherbeaten following Hurricane Hermine).
One of many fringe benefits of the lack of coastal development is the popularity of scalloping. Here, as in neighboring Dixie County, visitors can harvest scallops at Keaton Beach, Hagen's Cove, and Steinhatchee between July 1 and Sept. 10. A saltwater fishing license, available at any marina store, is the first step to fresh seafood. After that, a snorkel, mask, water shoes, and a mesh bag (to hold your catch) is the gear you’ll need to search for scallops in the shallow waters.
Leaving Keaton, Beach Road scribbles south as it runs parallel to the coast. If you’ve ever wondered what Florida looked like when Native Americans were its only residents, just three miles south comes a portion of the 90,000-acre Big Bend Wildlife Management Area.
of Big Bend WMA is a 19,538-acre mix of dry prairie, saw palmettos, and swampland, its primary visitors being bowhunters who track the wild hogs that roam through this forbidding area. So aside from a few dirt roads, this wilderness is just that. Wilderness.
For fans of back road travel, C.R. 361 (Beach Road) is one of the best. With hardly a trace of oncoming traffic, you’ll feel as if you’re the first to discover this remote avenue on the 18-mile drive south to one of Florida’s most interesting communities.
Steinhatchee
When you drive into Steinhatchee, it’s as if you’ve left Florida and entered the set of a film about Florida. The Steinhatchee River runs through it, and small wooden cottages, independent businesses, and several nice restaurants (seafood’s a specialty in this fishing village) run along its winding banks. There’s a refreshing authenticity at every turn – the old hardware store, the community building, and even a library small enough to fit inside a cottage the size of a bread truck.
Yet there’s another side to the town. Steinhatchee Landing on the banks of the Steinhatchee River. Within its 35 unspoiled natural acres, it brings to Taylor County the amenities of a fine resort with one- to four-bedroom upscale cottages tucked within a pristine habitat of pines, moss oaks, and silver palm. A calming place for guests looking for a weekend getaway and families arriving for reunions, it has even welcomed celebrity guests including President Jimmy Carter.
For More Great Outdoors
Paddling
Whether it’s on the Gulf or on a river, Taylor County has an abundance of waterways for every skill level. A six-mile stretch of the Aucilla River Canoe Trail
is on the county’s eastern edge, and consists of swift currents, scattered shoals, and rapids that drop several feet. A less intense option is a four-mile stretch of river at the Econfina River State Park outside Perry. For more information on freshwater and saltwater paddling trails, outfitters, and maps, start at Taylor County’s ecotourism page.
For the Birds
The Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, which includes the aforementioned Tide Swamp Unit, also encompasses the Hickory Mound Impoundment about 25 miles west of Perry. What will you find there? According to the folks in Taylor County, green- and blue-winged teals, northern pintails, bald eagles, ospreys, and other raptors. Along the coast, Hagen's Cove (south of Keaton Beach) has been called one of the "premier shorebird locations on Florida's Gulf Coast” since it attracts sandpipers, whimbrel, reddish egrets, plovers, egrets, blue herons, and swallow-tailed kites. For more information, check out the Great Florida Birding Trail.
