Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Coastal state park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park is a coastal preserve in Santa Rosa Beach featuring Gulf beaches, freshwater lakes, and sand dunes. The property encompasses varied natural habitats across its terrain, with dunes and wooded areas backing the shoreline.
Longleaf pine forests on the hill were logged and tapped for naval stores by the Bullard–Stallworth Turpentine Company, and a turpentine camp known as "the Quarters" ran from the late 1800s into the mid-1900s. During World War II a metal-mesh road was laid across about 0.75 miles of dune to move military vehicles to a JB-2 testing facility. The state bought the first 349 acres in 1992 after a large private development collapsed, and the Gregory E. Moore RV Resort was added in 1998.
The park's name comes from a white-sand dune that, seen from the Gulf, was said to look like a ship's topsail; Hurricane Opal cut the dune down in 1995. In the northwest, turpentine cups, metal gutters and V-shaped cat-face scars from resin tapping remain from the Bullard–Stallworth Turpentine Company and "the Quarters" camp, worked from the late 1800s into the mid-1900s.
The park provides camping areas, overnight cabins, and walking trails for different visitor preferences. A tram service connects the main facilities to the beach, making access straightforward.
Topsail Hill holds the largest surviving natural population of the Choctawhatchee beach mouse, a federally endangered subspecies. Since the late 1980s the park has supplied the mice for every reintroduction to other Panhandle state parks. The animals live in the dune scrub behind the beach, where their burrows go unnoticed by most visitors.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,672 contributors worldwide.