Whether you're wanting to do some birding, looking for a bit of fishing, or seeking shady solitude beneath the branches of a live oak, there are plenty of places to find a calming respite in Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach.
Check out this list of five peaceful parks and preserves that are worth adding to your "must-visit list."
This environmental sanctuary in Englewood, along Oyster Creek where it flows into Lemon Bay, is easily accessibly via Placida Road. The preserve provides both a peaceful atmosphere and exciting photographic possibilities. Keep your eyes peeled for gopher tortoises, perching osprey, and bald eagles. You may even luck into a Florida scrub-jay sighting.
The boardwalk crossing Oyster Creek is an excellent vantage point to view the large variety of birds that use the creek, including wading species such as the wood stork, white ibis, roseate spoonbill, little blue heron, reddish egret, snowy egret, limpkins, and tricolored heron.
Although this park is centrally located in Port Charlotte and easy to access via Peachland Boulevard, it offers a true respite from the busy outside world.
Take a meditative walk around a ¾ mile loop trail that guides you underneath canopies of live oaks, red maples, Florida elms, and cypress -- just don't forget to bring your binoculars. Audubon-Pennington is known as a "birding hotspot"—more than 80 different species have been observed!
Just 20 minutes from downtown Punta Gorda, off Washington Loop Road via Hightway 17, Prairie Creek Preserve is home to a wide array of Florida wildlife. Keep an eye out for the rare Florida scrub-jay, the downy woodpecker, gopher tortoises, bobcats, white-tailed deer, and more.
This secluded hiking, birding, and paddling destination encompasses a diverse number of habitats, from scrub and scrubby flatwoods to palmetto prairies, pine flatwoods, and marshes. There's also a kayak/canoe launch.
The entrance to Tippecanoe Environmental Park is somewhat tucked away behind the Charlotte Sports Park, off El Jobean Road in Port Charlotte, which is definitely part of the park's charm.
Well-maintained and ADA Accessible boardwalks provide hikers with the chance to observe bird life in the mangrove communities and marshes, but one of the main highlights is the hike to the top of Mount Tippecanoe for a particularly scenic view of the Myakka River and Charlotte Harbor.
Situated on the south fork of Alligator Creek in Punta Gorda, just east of Tamiami Trail at Acline Road, Allapatchee Shores Park is primarily known for canoeing, kayaking, and fishing.
It's the perfect place to escape the crowds and decompress on the water.
If you don’t have a canoe or kayak, you can still fish from the shore for snook, juvenile tarpon, and largemouth bass.
Now that you know about a few more peaceful parks in Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach, it's time to pack up your binoculars, sunscreen, birding journal, fishing rod, and bug spray (in season). There's no such word as "stress" when you're spending time at one of these natural wonders.
Author
Capt. Debbie Hanson
Debbie Hanson is an award-winning outdoor writer, women’s sport fishing advocate, IGFA world record holder, and freshwater guide living in Southwest Florida. Hanson’s written work has appeared in publications such as Florida Game & Fish Magazine, BoatUS Magazine, and USA Today Hunt & Fish. She is the owner of SheFishes2.com and is also a weekly contract blogger for TakeMeFishing.org.
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