Fort De Soto, FL

After a month in the Miami area, we were definitely ready for a change in scenery. Thankfully our next destination was Fort De Soto, a beachfront county park on the gulf side of Florida near St Pete. Not only were we excited about this park, but we already loved this gorgeous part of Florida, where Michael’s grandparents lived and his sister got married. The beaches are so pretty that they can turn a nonbeach person into a beach person.

On our way, we stopped in Fort Meyers to see our friends Mike and Betty who we met while volunteering in Virginia. They gave us a tour of their current volunteer gig and fed us our best travel day lunch ever! Too short a visit, but we know we’ll meet back up on the road eventually!

Fort De Soto is a large park, covering over 1,100 acres across 5 keys. It has an amazing campground with large private sites and water/electric hookups. Many of the sites are waterfront but because county residents can make reservations a month earlier than everybody else, we ended up with an interior site.

Our backyard (left) versus a waterfront backyard (right). Being able to kayak right from our site is a dream! If we had the site on the right we may have never left.

There are 7 miles of beach on Mullet Key, with North Beach being a clear favorite.

We were at the beach so much we had to buy an umbrella.

The northernmost section of North Beach is great for shelling!

Fort De Soto does have a fort, built to protect Tampa Bay during the Spanish American War.

And a pier.

And an official paddling trail with markers so you don’t get lost in the mangroves.

There’s not a good reason to ever leave Fort De Soto unless your fun Aunt Lori and Uncle Steve invite you for a visit! We had a weekend of delicious meals, live music, first-time pickleball, swimming, and boating!