Fort De Soto Park

We battled traffic on I4 in the rain to get to Pinellas County, Florida where an amazing campground is located.  Fort De Soto Park is a  county park that consists of a chain of five islands.  It is a historical, beautiful park that was a joy to explore.

Our campsite was located on one of these islands.  Here is a view from behind our campsite.

Our campsite was nestled into a well shaded area with Live Oaks and palm trees.  The campsites are spacious, but are close to one another.  A thin barrier of trees and shrubs do add a sense of privacy, but getting to know your neighbor is unavoidable.  Thankfully we had great ones.  They helped us guide our camper into our site, in the dark and the pouring rain.  These are the type of neighbors you want!

Fortunately Saturday morning was a clear, sunny day so we could explore the beaches and Fort De Soto.

Dog Beach

This is a great park to take your dog camping.  Our campsite was pet friendly, but we found out that spots fill up fast.  I stalked the reservation site until one opened up and nabbed it.

Our first place to visit was the dog park and dog beach located close by. There are bike trails all around the islands, but we chose to drive to the beach with our dog.  There are not many places in Florida where you can take a dog to the beach so we were excited to take our German Shepherd.

This was a great place to let her run.  There is a fence separating the big and little dogs.  But I think she liked the beach the best.

You can take your dog off their leash while at this beach and dog park.   We didn’t because we weren’t  sure how she would react towards other dogs.  She is a little skittish around bigger dogs and there were several running around.

Bring plenty of water for your dog to drink.  It is hot and they will be tempted to drink the salt water.

We gave our dog a much needed break and dropped her off at our air conditioned camper while we continued to explore the park.

Fort De Soto

Our next stop was the fort.  This was an interesting stop and provided the boys with ample opportunities to investigate Fort De Soto and learn  the history behind it.

After exploring the fort we headed to the gift shop/snack bar to grab something quick to eat before heading to the beach.

The Beach

The beach was just a quick stroll away and it was breathtakingly beautiful.  My boys of course jumped right in.

I am so glad I got both of them these snorkel masks during Amazon Prime Day. They were easy to use and the boys didn’t have to worry about water coming in through the air tube.  I had to get two different brands, because they were selling so fast and I wanted them to have different colors.  But they each loved their own. The gulf is a great place to use them, because the waves are calmer.  Definitely a great investment.  You can find the masks here and here.

My boys also loved exploring the ruins of the fort that had fallen into the gulf.  I think this was their favorite place.

We made it back to our cozy campsite, met with a still tired dog, in time to make a quick late lunch on the grill before the afternoon storms hit.

We stopped at North Beach the next morning before we packed up and left.  This is another great beach to visit.  It had several playground areas for kids to play and picnic areas.

The beach was pristine and we loved walking it before we left.

This was an exceptionally well planned out campground and park to visit.  We would love to go for the day and do all things we didn’t have time to do.  Kayaking and biking the islands would be at the top of our list.

Definitely put this campground on your places to visit list.  You will not regret it, just remember your sunscreen and bug spray.

Happy Camping!

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