The walk from the small parking area takes seven minutes—long enough for the hum of Highway 30A to fade into the whisper of wind through longleaf pines. The boardwalk climbs over dunes that rise thirty feet, their flanks stitched with railroad vine and ghost crabs that dart sideways at your approach. At the crest, the view stops you: a shallow, amber-tinted lake on one side, the Gulf's blue-green expanse on the other, separated by a narrow sandbar that shifts with each storm.
“One of fewer than fifteen coastal dune lakes worldwide, offering dual freshwater and saltwater swimming within a fifty-yard walk.”
Credit: FlickrNE Atlanta Onaway MI 1950s Aerial View of the Beach @ CANADA CREEK RANCH Resort on Lake Geneva Deer Hunters Trophy Dream Racks on the Annual Buck Pole established 1934 Lake Geneva in Montmorency Co.9
Deer Lake itself stretches inland, its edges fringed with tupelo and cypress knees. The water tastes faintly of tea, colored by tannins leached from decaying vegetation—one of only fifteen coastal dune lakes in the world, and fewer than five you can swim in without a boat. Wade into the lake's bathwater warmth, then cross fifty yards of powdery sand to plunge into the cooler Gulf. The contrast—fresh to salt, bronze to azure—makes you feel like you've discovered a geographic glitch.
By late afternoon, the crowd thins to a handful of locals spreading blankets near the dune line. The sun drops behind slash pines, painting the lake's surface gold, then copper. Herons stalk the shallows. You'll leave with sand in your shoes and the strange, satisfying knowledge that you've been somewhere few guidebooks mention.
