La Riva, Perdido Key Live Cam

A boardwalk crosses the dune to the beach at Perdido Key, the barrier island west of Pensacola on the Florida panhandle. The webcam looks straight down it from the resort behind.

The sand is almost pure quartz, carried off the Appalachians by rivers over a very long stretch of time and washed white; it squeaks underfoot because the grains are so even in size. The sea oats holding the dune together are protected by law, which is why the crossing exists at all.

The Perdido Key beach mouse lives in these dunes and nowhere else, and is listed as endangered. The island runs west across the state line into Alabama, and a section of it is held by the Gulf Islands National Seashore.