Camping with family at Fort De Soto County Park

 

Date: 12/4/14 – 12/7/14

Location: Fort De Soto, St. Petersburg, Fl

 

Back in August we were surfing around the campground reservation sites trying to find a location for a December camping trip. For some odd reason we were able to secure two adjoining sites at Fort Desoto Campground in St. Petersburg, Florida. Fort De Soto is a very popular park and difficult to get a spot during the busy season. So, we were surprised to find we could actually get a reservation here.

We’ve camped here once before several years ago and it was right after we bought our trailer. Julie also used to camp here when she was a kid. Her parents and 5 sisters would stay here for a week or so during the summer in the family's’ pop up trailer. I can’t imagine camping with six daughters, but I guess they all survived and actually had a fun time and now fond memories.

Julie and I were hoping we could entice some of our Florida family members to join us for the weekend. We put out the word to family and actually got a few takers. My brother and his wife (Jim and JoAnne) from south Florida along with our two daughters (Allison and Michelle) and a son-in-law (Dave) decided to join us. How lucky were we!! We love having company during our camping trips.

Our sites, # 207 & #208, were right on the water. They were good sized with adequate privacy between the sites, but we didn’t have a great view of the water as there were some mangroves preventing us from getting a good view. Luckily we were able to launch the kayaks from our site. On Saturday the site next to us was open and had a prime water view, so we kind of took it over for a time and hung out there and enjoyed the scenery.

This is site #207 with the matching tents. We really like the tent that Jim and JoAnne have, so when the kids decided to join us, we purchased similar tent from Amazon. When we set them up we realized that they were exactly the same.

 

This is our site, #208, right next door. Allison stayed in the tent right behind our trailer, but she felt a little cheated after she saw that her sisters tent had a screen porch. It’s always tough being the younger sibling!!

Our family enjoys playing corn hole (aka “bags” for those more refined southern family members).  Sometimes these games get a little competitive and the trash talking flows freely. I brought our “corn hole” set up and found a somewhat level area in front of our sites. We got in a few good games over the weekend, but no champions were crowned. That will have to wait for the next ‘Curtis Cup Challenge” held every summer at Maine lake place.

 

This guy (or gal?) spent a lot of time in the trees near our site. A very good looking bird, but…

 

he would make periodic trips through our campsites looking for handouts. And he didn’t want to take “no” for an answer. The first day we were there, we ate lunch at the picnic table at our site. This bird walked up to us, stood about 2 feet away from our table and just stared at us. We didn’t give in and he finally walked away, but made many more appearances throughout the weekend.

 

One of the great things about Fort De Soto is the number of activities available. It’s really a well designed and run campground. There’s miles and miles of bike trails. One Friday Julie and I took a ride around the park. Here we came across a few white pelicans. It was entertaining watching them chase the fish around this small bay. It was almost too easy for them to catch their lunch.

The younger generation arrived on Friday night for the weekend camping trip. We were sure lucky with the weather this weekend and Saturday was actually a little warm with the temperatures reaching into the low 80’s. Here’s they are enjoying the water in front of our site. You know it had to be warm for our two daughters to actually be in the water. One (not saying who) is a cold water wimp and won’t go near the water unless it is VERY warm.

 

A nice little family pic at sunset of Jim, JoAnne, moi and daughter Allison.

 

One one of our bike rides I came across this “RV” as they were checking into the campground. I’m thinking this may be next our list of RV purchases. This thing was a beast and its’ tires came up to my chest. It really was way cool. It had a web site address on it, http://www.monster-worldtour.de/, which I tried to look up. But it was totally in German, so didn’t mean much to me.

 

Whenever Julie and I camp with Jim and Jo we split the cooking duties. Here they are preparing another fine breakfast for us. We always eat well when we camp!!

 

Jim and I did an early morning bike ride on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s ride took us by the fort and over to the west beach area. The picture below is of the lagoons just off the Gulf of Mexico. They have a large area roped off as a bird sanctuary and nesting area.

Here’s the GPS track of our Saturday ride.

Fort Desoto Campground Bike Ride at EveryTrail

 

 

Our Sunday bike ride took us to the east beach area:

Fort Desoto Campground Bike Ride at EveryTrail

 

The water was calm for most of our weekend trip. Julie spent some time paddling around the bay and enjoying some time on the water.

 

Here’s Jim also taking a little paddle around the area. The last night we were there, the weather started to change, the wind picked up some and the fog rolled in. So glad we had good weather earlier so we could enjoy our outdoor activities.

 

On Saturday we had some visitors join us. Joanne’s sister Janice and her husband Bill came over from Dunedin and hung out for awhile out by the water. We tried to talk them into staying for dinner, but unfortunately they had to leave.  Later that same afternoon a long lost friend of Julie and I stopped by. Garrett was a co-worker of ours when we worked at Chief Charlies way back in the late 1970’s (wow, that’s a long time ago!!). He’s lived in the area since that time and we re-united with him just recently when we spent a weekend in Dunedin. He now has a beautiful family, his wife Terry and two sons. We hope to see them again sometime soon. 

And one final picture of a sunset from Fort De Soto and the now famous tree. Looking back at the pictures that I’ve included, I think this tree is in about half of them. Guess I really thought it was interesting enough to photograph..over…and…over!!

 

A youtube vidoe showing our two campsites.

Barr Hammock Preserve Hike

 

Date: 10/6/2013

Location: Gainesville, Fl

We’ve hiked the 6+ mile loop trail at Barr Hammock Preserve several times. It was Sunday morning, we didn’t feel like loading up the kayaks for a paddle or going on any long road trip to a park, so we decided to do this hike once again. The weather had been teasing us with a few cooler morning recently, but unfortunately this morning was not one of those and it was a little warm for this walk. We decided to hike this loop going counter clockwise and get the sunny northern part of the trail out of the way first. The southern side is more wooded and shady and would be more comfortable as the day warmed even more.

Being a large wetland, there were many birds to be seen out on the preserve. We also came across several alligators soaking up the warmth of the sun. One large male (about 7+ feet long) caught us off guard as we didn’t see him near the edge of the water, but he saw us and made a mad dash and buried himself in the mud and brush. We also say several mom gators with their small babies and they also dove for cover as we approached.

 

The entire hike is on an old levee that surrounds the wetlands.

 

They have added several new covered benches along the trail. There’s now three for four locations where you can sit and take in the scenery.

 

With so much water around, I’d have thought that we would have seen more snakes, but this is the only one we came across. He (or she) wasn’t too concerned about us and just stayed in this sunny spot as we passed.

 

We’ve not had any cold weather to cause any color change in all the vegetation, but with all of the fall flowers that were blooming and some of the summer plants dying off, there was some nice colors around.

Here is the GPS track from our hike at Barr Hammock

Barr Hammock Preserve Hike at EveryTrail

 

And a short YouTube video taken a several spots on the trail

 

 

Camping weekend at Lithia Springs

Date: 8/3/12 – 8/5/12
Location: Lithia, Fl
GPS Coordinates: 27.869287, –82.224526

We found this campground that is real close to our oldest daughters new home. Lithia Springs is a Hillsborough County park. The campground is nice with a few of the sites sitting next to the Alafia River. The main draw to this park is the large spring with a beach area surrounding it. We were there in early August, so the weather was still warm and as a result the springs were packed with day visitors. If you want to claim a spot near the spring for the day, then get there early. I’ve read other blogs about this park during the cooler weather and it sounds like things are much calmer during the cool months.
There’s not much hiking at this park, but there is a canoe and kayak launch if you want to do some paddling on the Alafia River. This is a quirky campground in some of the site layouts. Some of the sites are very unlevel and many  have their water and power on the wrong sides or far away from where you would park your camper.
Here is our Review of this campground:
Campground: Lithia Springs Campground
Website: http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/facilities.aspx
Site Number: 25
Price: $24 night
Date visited: 8/03/2012 - 8/05/2012
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 3 (varies by campground loop chosen)
Campsite space between sites: 3 (varies by site)
Campsite privacy between sites: 3 (varies by site)
Campsite level: 2. Most sites not very level. Also, some of the water and power hookups are not well placed
Campsite parking: dirt
Campfire permitted: yes. Fire ring on each site
Campsite picnic table: Yes
Campground Facilities: 3.5
Campground access to hiking: 1. No defined hiking trails
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 4. A large spring for swimming and a river for canoe/kayaking
Campground access to biking: 3
Overall Campground rating: 3. A nice park, but a little quirky in places!

Our site, #25, was very large and nobody close by!

Hanging out at the camp site

Looking at our site from the road

Camping trip to Fort Desoto

Date: 12/17/11 – 12/19/11
Location: St. Petersburg, Fl
GPS Coordinates: 27.637149 -82.719949
For our first real camping trip we were able to snap up a spot at Fort Desoto campground in St. Pete. This is a very popular county park and for good reason. There’s a wide variety of camping sports, most very nice and spacious and many being right on the water. This park is also well known for its’ beach and has been chosen as the number one beach in the US on several occasions. The beach is a good distance away from the campground. You would need some bikes or drive to the beach. There are good bike paths throughout the park making biking anywhere very convenient.
Also, this park has many great fishing locations. You can find places to fish from the shore or put in a boat/kayak to get to other fishing spots.
Here is our Review of this campground:
Website: http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/05_ft_desoto.htm
Site Number: 211
Date visited: 12/17/11 - 12/19/11
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 5
Campsite space between sites: 4
Campsite privacy between sites: 4.5
Campsite level: 4
Campsite parking: gravel/dirt
Campfire permitted: Need fire pit. No ground fires
Campsite picnic table: Wood (moveable)
Campground Facilities: 5
Campground access to hiking: 3
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 5
Campground access to biking: 5
Overall Campground rating: 5
 
Very “friendly” squirrels at Ft. Desoto

Beach right in front of our campsite
 
Our camping spot as seen from the water.

Another view of our campsite.

A nice sunset over the bay at Ft. Desoto

Mother and daughter enjoying the view.

The beach at Ft. Desoto

If she can catch a fish, then anyone should be able to!!