A Beautiful Deserted Beach

Caladesi Island is a state park off the coast of Dunedin, FL reachable only by boat...although I did hear about a “sand spit” which goes out in the water from Clearwater Beach, FL (a town south of Dunedin) where you can “walk” to the Island. When we first went to explore the beach last night we ran into this guy, a Gopher Tortoise.

They are a protected species, unlawful to touch or disturb in any way AND you are suppose to observe them from a distance....of course we read the sign about them after this encounter.

This morning for nearly 3 hours I had the beach to myself...this is surely one of the best kept secrets in Pinellas Co. OR is this the reason there were so few folks around?

Never saw any snakes as I walked the entire beach but there were plenty of footprints.

Empty beach chairs that you can rent for the day.

Behind me is the Gulf of Mexico and a soft rolling surf.

Looking toward the north.

Southward

Many shells of Horseshoe Crabs were on the beach.

I didn't see the sandman until returning from the north end of the beach...don't know how I missed this cutie!

Close up of a fun time.

Small Chid's Footprint

If you walk beyond where the footprints are you can find some pretty sea shells.

This is the far end of the beach looking south.  You can see how the mangroves have captured sand and made land.

Here you are looking through the clear water.

I was glad to know that Big Bird made it to Caladesi beach!  This is one footprint from a trail of them running across the sand to the water's edge. This print is over 6 inches from the three front toes to the tip of that one back toe!

After 3 hours the heat was getting close to the record breaking 84 degrees today so I left for the AC of the boat... as I did the first ferry boat was landing bringing only a handful of people from the mainland...this was Saturday!.... more did come on the next boat but it never got crowded.....

Goodnight Sun, Goodnight all!