Scenic Highway 30A is a treasure of the Florida Panhandle, a gateway to the white-sand beaches, charming (and progressively planned) coastal hamlets, and gorgeous (and globally rare) ecosystems that compose South Walton County’s Gulf seaboard. This roughly 28-mile-long alternative to State Route 30 is also notable for being just as easily and as rewardingly explored by bicycle as by car.
Indeed, you could argue this is one of the great cycling corridors in the Sunshine State, given the abundance and variety of biking routes along 30A. Here’s a look at seven of the very best!
(1) The Timpoochee Trail
We’ll kick off with what’s indisputably the crown jewel of 30A biking. The Timpoochee Trail, a long-realized dream completed in the 2000s, shadows the full length of Scenic Highway 30A, offering a wide and well-maintained dedicated recreation path between the communities of Dune Allen Beach and Inlet Beach.
With multiple bike-rental shops and entry points along its span, the Timpoochee is a must-do for SoWal visitors with a fondness for cycling. In fact, it’s hard to think of a better way to experience the many pleasures of the 30A corridor than by pedal power along the Timpoochee Trail. The trail lets you cycle your way between a dozen or so architecturally striking South Walton beach towns—Grayton Beach, Seaside, Watersound, Alys Beach, and others—and numerous public beach accesses. And it immerses you in the fresh air and piercing natural beauty—anchored by flatwoods, sandhill scrub, wet prairies, and stunning dune lakes—for which this coastland is so celebrated.
(2) Santa Rosa Beach Greenway Trails
Santa Rosa Beach’s Town Center Government Education Complex near the U.S. Highway 331/U.S. Highway 98 junction is the springboard for a lovely system of trails totaling more than four miles. These include bike-friendly multi-use and Greenway segments, and show off some fine shady native vegetation communities and wetlands.
(3) Longleaf Greenway Trail
The roughly 15,100-acre Point Washington State Forest between the Gulf of Mexico seacoast and Choctawatchee Bay is definitely among the natural treasures of the 30A corridor, and besides being an ecological sanctuary, it’s a recreational wonderland. Among multiple great cycling routes (with more to come here in this list) is the eight-mile-long Longleaf Greenway, a singletrack trail transecting the western section of the state forest between the Satinwood Road and Eastern Lake trailheads.
Weaving through the forest’s bewitching flatwoods and sandhills, this multi-use track gives you plenty of looks at its namesake tree: the longleaf pine, savannas of which once covered vast acreage in the American Southeast. Imperiled by development, longleaf ecosystems are being restored in the Point Washington State Forest, and a ride along the Longleaf Greenway Trail is one way to celebrate this stately conifer’s importance to the Emerald Coast landscape.
(4) Eastern Lake Trail System
Another linchpin of the Point Washington State Forest trail system—and, in fact, the first part of it to be established—the Eastern Lake Trail encompasses a trio of single- and double-track circuits out of the Eastern Lake Trailhead that give cyclists (and hikers) options for a 3.5-mile, five-mile, or 10-mile loop.
Cruise your way through pine flatwoods and sandhills, titi swamps and wet prairies: more fantastic explorations of the 30A corridor’s wild side. The Eastern Lake Trail System even affords access to primitive backcountry campsites, in case you want to bike-camp out for a night or two.
(5) McQuage Bayou Multi-Use Trail
Set in the northern section of the Point Washington State Forest, the McQuage Bayou system was once an equestrian-only horse trail, but it was transformed into a multi-use route—still open to riders, mind you—on the heels of a 2017 restoration project. Cyclists are among the user groups who now can enjoy its sandhill circuits, which include a 5.8-mile western loop and a 3.7-mile eastern one.
(6) Watersound Trail
This easy, five-mile-long crushed-gravel multi-use path connects the Watersound Origins community in Santa Rosa Beach with Panama City Beach’s Conservation Park, passing through handsome pine flatwoods and edging cypress domes. Cyclists can expand their adventuring by tacking on trails in Conservation Park, which also links in with the extensive Gayle’s Trails system.
(7) Grayton Beach State Park Hike & Bike Trail
One of several stellar state parks along South Walton County’s 30A corridor, Grayton Beach State Park, close to 2,000 acres in extent, includes a 4.5-mile-long Hike & Bike Trail that ventures through its coastal forest and along the shores of one of the region’s largest dune lakes: Western Lake. Here again, too, you can extend your bike trip: The Lake Loop Trail links the Grayton Beach State Park Hike & Bike Trail with additional cycling routes, including the Timpoochee Trail.
Bike to Your Heart’s Content Along Scenic Highway 30A in South Walton County
From coasting through bird-rich titi tangles and avenues of longleaf pines to cooling off in beach-town cafés and declaring a sunbathing interlude (or three) on sugar sands, it’s really hard to beat the joys of biking along the Florida Emerald Coast’s 30A corridor. Find out for yourself!
