Summer Day @ Fort de Soto Beach Park

Debbie, a big tropical storm visited Tampa last June. After reading the papers we thought that the beach was destroyed. My sister and I wanted to go to our favorite local beach, Sunset Beach, located south of Treasure Island near St. Pete. We decided to go to Fort de Soto because the articles didn't list this beach as one affected by the storm. The beach was a little dirty, but other than that it looked like nothing happened.

The beach was not too crowded probably because everyone thought that the beaches were in bad shape after the storm. There is a new $5 fee to get into the park so I'm sure that there are less visitors because of that. 

Ft. de Soto Beach

Ft. De Soto Fishing Pier

Protected Turtle Nests

Everytime I go to this beach I want to walk to the fort. However, we always park too far away and with the extreme heat all I want to do is relax. This time, we parked very close to the fort and before I got lazy I walked towards it. It was nice to learn more about the history of this place. 

Ft. De Soto Beach

I wanted to wait for the sunset, but it is extremely hot in the Summer and we couldn't stay any longer. We need to bring a big umbrella next time to take breaks from the sun. Fort de Soto has been named to America's Top Ten Beaches list by Dr. Beach numerous times. In 2005 it was number one in this list. I never heard of Dr. Beach before living in Florida, but this beach really deserves the title.