De Soto National Memorial

This is the first park Steve & I discovered when we moved to Florida, late 2009. We wanted to explore our new surroundings. We are from the northeast, Connecticut. I had read that a nearby National Park had shaded paths and was also right along the Manatee River. We brought our 2 dogs, Asia & Chloe for a walk (blip entry) and enjoyed the beach above. We did this many times, over and over again because it was such a lovely place to walk, on the beach and through the hammock forest on the paths. Always something new to see, boats passing by...the dogs so enjoyed it and we did too! 

We still go there often but have not been able to walk on this beach since Hurricane Ian hit in 2022... a category 4 storm with major storm surge. Ian made landfall about 100 miles south of us in Fort Myers, but we still had effects here in Bradenton. The storm caused so much erosion on the beaches. Every time we came to De Soto Memorial after Hurricane Ian, we could not walk on the beach as we always did because the water now came right up to the mangroves. There was NO beach! It had washed away from erosion and could not be seen in normal tides.

Today the tide (Manatee River is a tidal river) was really, really low - under a foot (!) when we went there today. Steve noticed how low it was and as we walked along, we wondered if maybe, we might be able to walk the beach.... 

YES we could! It was amazing and wonderful. This will not happen often again, only when there is an extremely low tide, but the experience was so nice. I am glad to remember it through this journal entry. :0)