Hiking at Caladesi Island State Park

I went hiking at Caladesi Island State Park this week.  The only way to reach Caladesi is by boat. I went to Honeymoon Island State Park and took the ferry over. I think the cost was $13 for the ferry, but it could have been slightly more.

Map of Caladesi Island

There were lots of mosquitoes on the island yesterday. Imagine that, mosquitoes in the Florida summertime. I walked a little on some of the interior trails, but they were pretty buggy. I decided to be a beach hiker for the day instead of a trail hiker. They stayed away from the beach.

I walked from where we entered the beach from the ferry up to the tip of North Beach. About 2.5 miles round trip. Some people were saying that North Beach was the place to get really nice shells. Maybe it's a tide thing, but the north end was very sandy with few shells. But I rarely pick up shells anyway.

We saw several dolphins on the way over. The ferry captain kept telling us that he usually sees manatees there, but we didn't see any on either direction. They were otherwise engaged yesterday.

Dolphins, not my picture

The biggest disappointment was the sting rays. The captain kept telling us to do the "stingray shuffle" while in the water because of the large number of stingrays here. But I didn't see any. Also nobody around me at the beach saw any. I walked out as far as I could a couple of times trying to find one but never did. Guess it just wasn't their day.

I did see lots of birds. The north end of the island had lots of different gulls. There were several black skimmers and even a couple of oystercatchers around. Unfortunately I didn't have my regular camera when I saw them. This was taken with a small underwater camera.

Shorebirds

There was a little area where the gulf water had created a channel into the beach. It had lots of fish and starfish. I saw 5 or so stars, but this one looked interesting because of the missing arm. I think he's a gray sea star, but it could be a banded sea star. I didn't pick him up to look at the other side.

Caladesi star with partially missing arm

But it was a nice day at the beach. I saw lots of wildlife on the beach itself. Next time I'll come at a cooler, drier time of the year and go through the interior to see what's there.