Park at the lot on County Highway 283 in Grayton Beach and you will still see cars on a Saturday morning in August. What you will not see anymore is that line stretching all the way down Hotz Avenue, drivers circling the same three blocks looking for a spot that does not exist. A tram picks you up under the covered waiting area, drops you at the corner of Hotz Avenue and Garfield Street, and you are on the sand in minutes. No circling the block, no giving up and driving to a different beach. The ribbon cutting this summer marked the opening of a new building and named access point, following the tram service that began the previous year.
The New Beach Access Opened June 15
On June 15, 2026, the Walton County Board of County Commissioners cut the ribbon on the Bets "Beachmama" Haynes Regional Beach Access, the county's 11th Regional Beach Access, at 44 Hotz Ave. in Grayton Beach, just west of the Red Bar. An RBA is the county's designation for a public beach access point with parking, restrooms, showers, and bike racks, and this one adds an information center to that list. It sits inside a new building called the Grayton Beach Community Center, which also functions as a tram stop connected to a fresh run of boardwalks through "downtown" Grayton.
The timeline behind that connection begins with the county’s first Grayton hub.
Tram Service Began in July 2025
As MyPanhandle reported, the county opened the Grayton Beach Municipal Parking Facility, known locally as Grayton Central, in July 2025, with four "safari trams" running from the lot to the beach at Hotz Avenue and Garfield Street.
It worked immediately. In a February 2026 report, MyPanhandle quoted transportation manager Tabatha Bolen:
"We ran a quarter of a million riders back and forth from this lot to Grayton Beach and back."
That is roughly a quarter million riders, by Bolen's account, over the six or seven months between the lot's July opening and Bolen's comments, with four vehicles serving one location. The county's response was not to build more parking near the sand. It was to build a second hub farther inland and connect the two. On March 1, 2026, Walton County Tourism expanded the Beach Tram network, linking the 393 Municipal Parking Facility on Highway 393 near Gulf Place to Grayton Central for the first time, closing the gap between the two busiest stretches of 30A.
The new RBA building, which opened this June, sits at the endpoint of the existing tram route. It adds a covered waiting area and restrooms at the drop-off point.
Here is how the network breaks down as of this summer:
| Hub | When It Opened | Where the Trams Go |
|---|---|---|
| Grayton Central (Grayton Beach Municipal Parking Facility) | July 2025 | Direct A-to-B route to Hotz Avenue and Garfield Street; new west route (added March 2026) to Blue Mountain Regional Beach Access, Gulfview Heights, and the 393 lot |
| 393 Municipal Parking Facility | Expanded routes March 2026 | Direct route to Ed Walline Regional Beach Access; west route to Dune Allen Regional Beach Access and Fort Panic Beach Regional Beach Access |
| Driftwood Road Municipal Parking Facility | Under construction | Third hub, planned as the network grows |
Almost two-thirds of Walton County's 26 miles of beach is already open to the public. The bottleneck was never the sand. It was the curb.
Why the County Put Bets Haynes' Name on the Door
The name on the new building is not a committee's idea of a nice gesture. Bets "Beachmama" Haynes was a longtime Grayton Beach resident who led the grassroots push that convinced the state of Florida to buy nearly 900 acres of coastal land in 1985, land that became Grayton Beach State Park instead of another stretch of high-density development. She died in 2005.
There is a straight line between what Haynes fought for in 1985 and what the county built around her name four decades later. In the eighties, the threat to Grayton Beach was bulldozers. In 2026, the threat was gridlock, cars parked on shoulders, and a beach access point that could not keep pace with how many people wanted to use it responsibly. The tram-and-hub system is a quieter version of the same instinct: protect what makes this stretch of coastline different by controlling how it gets used, not by locking people out of it.
What Locals Actually Get for Free Between Now and Labor Day
None of this costs residents anything extra. The tram network, the new RBA building, and the boardwalks were paid for through Walton County's Tourist Development Tax, a 5-percent bed tax charged on short-term rentals of six months or less in south Walton. Residents only pay it if they book a staycation somewhere else in the county. Otherwise, you are riding a system funded by visitors.
There is a second piece of free access still on the table this year. Walton County is again offering complimentary day-use entry to Grayton Beach State Park and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. With Labor Day falling on September 7 this year, that leaves about four weeks of no entry fee at two state parks most people assume always charge at the gate.
The tram ride itself costs nothing no matter which hub you start from or how many stops the route makes to get you there. Whatever a specific lot charges for parking on a given day, you are not paying twice to get from your car to the water.
The Part Worth Remembering
The access and tram network offer a practical response to beach-season congestion, and ridership figures offer one way to follow how the system is being used.
For anyone weighing a longer-term move to this part of the coast, that same attention to how local infrastructure functions and changes over time is worth carrying into a property search too. If you're exploring what life looks like across Walton County or along the 30A corridor, Destin Sells Destin can walk you through what these changes mean street by street, not just headline by headline. Find Your Emerald Coast Home.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
