The white sand of Santa Rosa Island and the rest of the Florida Panhandle is almost pure quartz, and it came from the Appalachian Mountains. Over millions of years, rivers carried grains of eroded mountain rock south to the Gulf, and currents along the coast spread them west. Each grain was rolled and tumbled until only the hardest mineral was left, rounded and nearly colorless, which is why these beaches look like sugar and squeak underfoot. Pensacola Beach sits on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island about 40 miles long that shelters Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound. Barrier islands are built of this sand and are constantly moved by it. Storms push sand from the Gulf side across the island and into the sound, and the island slowly shifts landward. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 washed over large stretches of the island, cut the road to Fort Pickens and buried it in sand, and flattened dunes that had stood for years. The dunes along the Gulf Islands National Seashore portion of the island have been rebuilding ever since, helped by sea oats whose roots trap blowing sand. The quartz beaches continue east along the Panhandle through Destin and Panama City Beach, the whole coast owing its color to mountains hundreds of miles away.
Getting there
30.3275, -87.1420
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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