Pine Island: Hernando County's Gulf beach
A small county park with actual sand on a coastline that is mostly salt marsh, and the closest thing to a swimming beach the county has.
Most of the Hernando County coastline is salt marsh and limestone, which is excellent habitat and poor swimming. Alfred McKethan Pine Island Park is the exception, and it is why the parking lot fills up on summer weekends.
What is there
Pine Island is a county park at the western end of Pine Island Drive, with a sand beach, a swimming area, picnic pavilions, restrooms and a concession. The water is shallow and calm, which makes it well suited to small children and poorly suited to anyone hoping to swim laps.
Because the Gulf shelves so gradually here, you can wade out a considerable distance. That is the appeal for families and the disappointment for people expecting the deep clear water of the barrier island beaches further south.
Go early on a hot weekend
Parking is the limiting factor. The lot is not large, and on holiday weekends it fills. There is a parking fee, and arriving mid morning rather than mid afternoon is the difference between a spot and a drive home.
Sunsets and birds
Facing west into the Gulf with no development in the way, Pine Island gets genuinely good sunsets, and it is a reliable spot for shorebirds and wading birds. Ospreys work the shallows. In the cooler months the crowds thin out and the park becomes a quiet place to walk.
Nearby
Jenkins Creek and Linda Pedersen Park, a little to the south along Shoal Line Boulevard, add a boardwalk, an observation tower and kayak access to the same stretch of coast. Between them and Bayport to the north, the county has more public Gulf access than its short beach frontage suggests.
Cover photo: Michelle Maria / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). Source.
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