“It’s also just that time of year where people are thinking about Santa and his reindeer and things like that, so it’s extra special.”

Annie Blanks @DestinLogAnnie

SANTA ROSA BEACH — A Blue Mountain Beach couple are inspiring a little bit of Christmas magic after they shared a video they took Saturday morning of three deer galloping down the beach.

Joany and Mark Dotson said they were taking a morning sunrise walk near Topsail State Park when they saw a mother deer and two babies running down the shoreline.

“We were walking on the beach and it was very quiet, there was nobody else there,” Joany said Monday. “On the way back to where the yellow flag entrance is, I didn’t have my glasses on, but I was like ‘are those people walking by the stairs or what?’ But then my husband, whose eyes are better than mine, said ‘oh, it’s a deer. And another one, and another one.’”

Joany took out her phone and captured an eight-second clip of the trio running free down the beach, with a calm Gulf of Mexico behind them and the colors of the sunrise silhouetting them. She shared the video to social media along with a Christmas message, where it had been shared over 8,500 times as of Monday afternoon.

She said after the clip ended, the deer darted into the dunes and towards the state park. Her husband, Mark, said he was touched by the chance encounter.

“What hit us so much about it was that I’ve only ever seen elk near the beach in Oregon on our travels, and you just don’t normally associate deer with the beach like that,” Mark said. “It’s also just that time of year where people are thinking about Santa and his reindeer and things like that, so it’s extra special.”

The couple added they see deer along Scenic Highway 30A on a regular basis, and have unfortunately seen deer hit on the side of the road. They said they hoped the video would inspire people to respect nature and look at their surrounding a little more closely while driving.

“We thought too that if many people really looked and saw the beauty of the nature around them, maybe they would slow down enough to notice it and be a little bit more careful,” Mark said.

Joany said the experience was “very special” and she was glad that she got to share it with so many people on Facebook.

“I love that it makes people smile and makes them feel happy,” she said. “Nature is a beautiful thing, it’s an unexpected wonder.”