Lovers Key State Park

Thursday November 6th

It's been fairly quiet over the last week or so for me.   Working on getting things done in and around the house so there was not much time for play.  However, with temps going up to 85 degrees, it was the perfect day to be outdoors. 

I was awoken this morning to the sound of "Fire" from the smoke detector at 5:30 AM!   I jumped out of bed to check the house and of course it was a malfunction of the detector.   Yet another call to the builder to have this thing checked out.  They couldn't come today but will be here on Friday so I decided to make today my fun and exploration day.

I went to the Thursday farmer's market and picked up some fresh veggies and a Maine crab cake.  Yum.  After lunch I headed to the beach area where there is a state park called Lovers Key.

Here is a map that I was able to download while hiking on the Black Island Trail in the park.

http://www.floridastateparks.org/loverskey/doc/additionalinformation/loverskeySPmap.pdf


As I entered the park of course there was an entry fee.  Lucky for me I was solo today and the fee was only $4.  Two or more is $8.   As I had only planned to be there for a few hours $4 was reasonable.

Here are some signs along the way.

The Black Trail is approximately 2.6 miles round trip and has several shortcuts so that you walk the trail part of the way and get back if you are short on time like me.  I also have plans to come back for a ranger led bike tour in a few weeks so I didn't want to spoil that.   On my way back I saw a Gopher Tortoise.  Look closely at the picture as the turtle is in the brush.

I had been looking for these turtles near the water but they are land turtles...at least some of the time.  I even heard this turtle munching on some dry grass.   Very cool to see one.   There is a lot to see and I am sure that I missed a lot of it so I am looking forward to going back in a few weeks! I continued on the trail and went back to the car.  Still more to explore in the park I drove to the beach area and parked in as shaded an area as I could find.

Yes....there is a beach that is in this nature preserve.   Surprise surprise.  It was more of a cove.  On one end they were working out replacing sand due to erosion.   On the other side of the cove the beach ended in the trees.

 Many beaches have boardwalks and trams that take you .....and you chair and umbrella....right to the beach!

 One end of the beach.  People had set up their chairs and umbrellas through those trees although they are hard to see.

I

It was very windy on the beach which caused this yellow flag to be posted.  The water was chilly so other than sticking my feet in the water for a very short time and there was no way I was putting any more of myself in that colder, choppy water.   I have gotten very spoiled since moving here and if the water in the Gulf is not warm I don't swim.

Here are some other sites throughout the park.  

This park reminded me of a mini Island Beach State Park.

 Here is a link to more park information.


 http://www.floridastateparks.org/loverskey/



One last thing that I thought would interest most of my fellow cyclists.  I have never seen tires so big....not even on a beach cruiser!  They were like mini car tires!  There were two ladies riding a bike like this but I was not quick enough to get a photo of them.

On my way home I couldn't resist taking a photo of this sign.

This dog beach is part of Bonita Springs.



I will continue to explore the area and hopefully find more gems like Lovers Key!