Caspersen Beach Park in Venice, FL
There is no shortage of beautiful beaches in Florida - that is a fact. However, we avoid many of them specifically because of the crowds — sorry but walking among people is not a relaxing activity for me, and I go to the beach particularly for that reason - to relax, clear my head and my soul.
Needless to say, the beaches in the Tampa Bay area are pretty crowded and loud, hence, we don’t visit them, if we can help it. Instead, we try to venture further and have been lucky to find some that, at least when we visited, were allowing for leisurely walks and the sound of crashing waves rather than music or loud talking.
One of them was Caspersen Beach, which is not unknown by any means, and, in fact, famous for fossilized shark teeth “hunting”. In truth, as we got there, we found quite a few people “combing” through the sand and seashells looking for the precious shark teeth. I say precious because it really did feel like we were in some “gold-rush” craze — most people came equipped with sifters and shovels and were intensely focused on their tasks of meticulously checking the sand.
Of course, we had hopes of finding shark teeth ourselves but soon realized that it’s really not that easy, especially if you don’t have tools to help you dig through the sand. The teeth don’t just sit on the beach for anyone to grab (trust me, the beach has been combed several times over by the avid-searchers), though somehow hubby found two, and that was the end of his luck. And I have to say that he did try to find more after those two to no avail.
As far as the beach itself, it’s actually quite narrow, hence not allowing a lot of room for large crowds. At the main entrance, the sand was black and it reminded me of Solana Beach in California (minus the huge cliffs), though the water was clear and mostly algae-free. The sand was very soft, which made it a bit difficult to walk in if you wanted to avoid the water.
To get away from the people, we walked down the shoreline where the dark sand turned into white, and the path only got narrower in spots. It was quiet and serene, though, we did run into a “surprise” there that I wish I could unsee.
Turns out that Caspersen Beach is an unofficial nudist spot (and definitely not legal), and based on reviews on the net, a place where other unorthodox things happen, though thankfully, we have not witnessed that. However, keep it in mind in case you decide to visit, and especially if you are with kids.
As stated in the title, the beach is part of a park that also has trails for hiking, though we didn’t try them as we simply ran out of time. The park, as well as parking, are free and there’s plenty available, though it can get full quickly.
There are restrooms, as well as a shower tower at the beach entrance in case you need to clean the sand off when you leave. The park is great for biking, and we saw several people do just that.
All in all, this place is ideal for kids and well as adults for a day’s worth of activities. Between hunting for shark teeth, hiking the trails, and simply enjoying the beach, everyone can find something there to enjoy.
Happy shark teeth hunting 😉!
My outfit: dress in burgundy-1 reviewed in this post.
Until next time.
xoxo,
Em
