We love our famous, sugary sand beaches, but we also love experiencing the great outdoors in all its wild glory. With the Florida heat and humidity still bearable and school almost out, here’s our annual list of 10 favorite public parks or nature preserves in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
These are places to relax and picnic or perhaps hike and kayak. Located both near and far from our biggest cities, these are oases where beautiful scrub jay and regal osprey dot the blue skies, with waters populated by jumping mullet, mellow manatees and, yes, the occasional alligator!
Thanks to the pandemic, we spent a lot more time exploring during the past year. So, you should find more detailed entries as well as a couple of new ones. Covering places in Sarasota, Venice, Osprey, the UTC area, Bradenton and Palmetto, these parks and nature preserves are presented in alphabetical order.