We stayed at a campground in Holiday, FL for a couple of weeks. Holiday is between St. Petersburg and Tampa and less than 10 miles from the Gulf coast.
Every morning we took Heidi for a stroll to the small lake. We would let her out of the stroller where she would walk along the lakeside and take in all the other doggies scents.
Sometimes Heidi would walk back to camp and other times she would opt for the taxi service!
These ducks could hold their own and were often intimidating! We thought twice about entering their space!
The lake was full of wildlife. We saw turtles and numerous bird species. It was fun to watch the Anhingas diving for food and drying off. We were told there was a 7 ft alligator in the lake. We were careful to keep Heidi a safe distance away.
Most evenings we would take a leisurely walk in hopes of seeing a nice sunset.
Honeymoon Island State Park
This is the place to go when you want to find less crowded beaches. This 2,810 acre park has over four miles of white sandy beaches. There are two nature trails where you can hike and view ospreys and gopher tortoises and maybe even see a great horned owl nesting with its chicks.
There was a nice pet beach at Honeymoon Island SP, where lots of dogs and their owners were enjoying the water.
To drive out to Honeymoon Island SP we had to drive over a long causeway. There were numerous pull outs where people were fishing and enjoying activities on the water.
There were people out enjoying the water on kayaks and paddleboards. It was a very windy day and we just watched the people instead of venturing out.
The Charming Town of Dunedin
The 40 mile long Pinellas Bike Trail goes through the charming town of Dunedin. There are numerous restaurants and unique shops along the main streets. We found an interesting bike store that rented Pedago electric bikes. We talked to the owner about the bikes and made reservations to rent the bikes.
It was really fun zipping along the trail. The bikes have electric pedal assist or can be fully electric. The pedal assist is nice for starting up or going up an incline, though we didn’t have too many of those on this trail!
Clearwater Beach
We drove down old 19A to see some of the beach towns and ended up at Clearwater Beach. After finding parking…..we enjoyed a few hours exploring the town. The beach was magnificent. The sand was a super fine white sand that was beautiful.
There was a very nice Beach Walk that ran along the Gulf.
There was a nice fishing pier that we walked out on.
We walked down the beach walk and back up in the sand. We had a nice lunch at a local seafood restaurant and enjoyed grouper tacos.
We took advantage of the numerous city and county parks around. This little park in Tarpon Springs was lovely.
This unique branch was begging for someone to pose.
Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park
We found a great park not too far from our campsite that had miles of hiking and biking trails. We ended up going here a couple of times for the biking. It became a favorite place to ride. We have found that so many of Florida’s bike trails parallel a road and we don’t really enjoy those trails. This park includes 8300 acres of land. The 7 mile bike trail connects to the Suncoast trail which is along a roadway.
There were rest stops along the way with shelters and picnic tables.
The park provided water stations at some of the shelters.
Returning on the 7.5 mile trail is still enjoyable. We see things we missed and spot a Little Blue Heron along the way. It was a perfect morning for a bike ride.