If you re traveling on foot, walking trails rich with native plants and wildlife skirt protected Indian burial and shell mounds created by Timucuan Indians, the area s first human inhabitants. These great piles of discarded shells grew as native dwellers helped themselves to the bounty of the bay. Visit Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area, accessed by the Dunedin Causeway, where you can mingle with gulls, terns and shorebirds, including black skimmers, snowy egrets and white ibises. Watch for large, sturdy osprey nests as you explore four miles of walking trails traversing the edge of Pelican Cove, coastal pine woodlands and salt marshes. From Honeymoon Island, you can take the ferry to Caladesi Island State Park for an afternoon picnic, swimming, shelling, fishing or scuba diving.
Mangrove swamps provide refuge for wading birds and shorebirds.
Anclote Key State Preserve, located three miles off Tarpon Springs, has a four-mile beach punctuated by a picturesque 1887 federal lighthouse. Six biological communities provide native habitats for rare and endangered species including the bald eagle who find sanctuary here. Island Wind Tours out of Tarpon Springs offers excursions to this beautiful island. Fort De Soto Park, at the southernmost tip of Pinellas County is a premier outdoor destination point. Waterfront camping by the Gulf of Mexico provides a home base for saltwater fishing, swimming, shelling and bird watching.