India, Jan. 23 -- Soft morning light washes over the sugar-white dunes of Grayton Beach State Park, turning the Gulf into a sheet of pale emerald and casting long shadows across Western Lake's glassy, brackish edge. Here, nearly 2,000 acres of protected shoreline, pine flatwoods, and rare coastal dune lakes create a landscape where the wild and human presence coexist in rare equilibrium.

Photographer, longtime local, and author of Where Waters Meet, Jonah Allen, says that balance is what defines Grayton. "What makes this area special is the fact that it's not urban, it's not suburban, and it's not rural-it's a combination of all three," he says. "You have the Gulf, you have these coastal dune lakes, and you have Point Washington State Fo...