WATER & COAST
Crooked Island Beach
Bay County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
An undeveloped beach on Tyndall Air Force Base land, which you need a recreational passport to enter.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Crooked Island Beach is on Tyndall Air Force Base land and you cannot simply turn up. A recreational passport is required, and anyone holding an active military identification card is exempt from that. It sits about an hour from the middle of Panama City Beach and is rarely crowded even at the height of the season. What is there is white sand and very little else: a portable toilet by the parking area, and a dumpster. There is no running water, no equipment rental, no lifeguards and no trash cans along the beach itself. People go for swimming, fishing and shelling, and sand dollars are found there intact. Hurricane Michael damaged the access road, so reaching the sand can mean a walk through soft ground. A Florida license is needed to fish. The passport is bought per person and arranged through the base rather than at the gate, so sort it out before you drive down. Anglers take flounder, Spanish mackerel and pompano off the sand. Early morning is when the shelling is worth doing, and people report finding close to a dozen whole sand dollars in a single visit, which is not something that happens on a busy beach. Bring chairs, shade, water and food, because there is nowhere to buy any of it
Not identified in this guide as an officially clothing-optional beach. This is a visit category, not a safety rating—check surf, lifeguards, water quality and posted rules.
BEACH CONDITIONS
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