We thought for sure we’d only go to one park in May, but we snuck in another trip (our shortest to date–Honeymoon Island State Park is one of the closest State parks to our home). Of course, we’ve been here before, but it had been a good five months since last we’d visited.

My husband was going to be leaving to work out of the state the next morning, so our trip was brief and we knew that we wouldn’t be swimming. (We also knew, however, that our oldest would end up wet and sandy, no matter whether we officially “swam” or not.)

Our little visit began along their bike path. As always, we brought no bicycles, but instead just meandered along the little asphalt strip. We did not see anyone bicycling the path when we visited (probably because it has very little shade and it was late May and thus sunny and sticky, albeit at least a little cooled from the sea’s breeze).

The initial plan was to follow the path to wherever it led, but doing so while at the beach felt silly, so after spotting a gopher tortoise burrow (a favorite pastime of my son), we decided to try our hand at walking on the beach. With a stroller.

The beach does, by the way, offer some level of accessibility to wheelchair users. We utilized the cloth path that was laid to the beach to more easily navigate the stroller through the dry, sugary sand leading up to the beach itself. The path ended, however, before the damp, compact sand was reached–so reaching the beach proper may still pose a challenge to some with mobility aids. It was only a slight challenge for the little one’s stroller, though.

As you could imagine, my son was slightly disappointed that we would not be putting on swim suits and getting into the water. He was placated, though, by the promise that he could walk along the surf in his Crocs… Which he did nearly the entire walk (which was probably about a mile and a half or so). Some of the beach is predominantly sandy, and those places were well-filled with people tanning, swimming, snacking, napping, and reading books. I didn’t take any pictures of that area, but if you can imagine what a lesser-packed and slightly less picturesque Clearwater Beach looks like, then you’ve got it.

(At this point, I should mention that Honeymoon Island State Park’s beaches always rank very well in national polls on the best beach to visit. It is a pretty nice place to swim–and you can also grab a ferry from the park to even better beaches on the nearby Caledesi Island State Park. They’re not empty, per se, but they’re far less crowded than the also-relatively-nearby Clearwater Beach and certainly more… authentic?… while also remaining fairly luxurious with their large swathes of soft sand.)

Some parts, though, are littered with rocks. These areas are also cool, because you can spot weird things in them, like this thing that my son was eager to point out to me:

Which I believe is a type of stingray egg case.

My son found that idea to be so preposterous, though, that he wasn’t even interested in hearing my explanation for how it once housed a bunch of little stingrays… Oh well.

We spent a couple of hours slowly walking, and my eldest had a great time digging in the sand, finding shells and egg cases, stomping in the water, and talking a lot about sharks. My youngest liked the relative breeze coming off the water and seemed to enjoy looking around at the sand, water, and sky (and his older brother!). My husband and I enjoyed the nice, calm walk, and when we were done, we utilized one of the many bathroom/shower/changing room combo buildings and put fresh clothes on my then-soaked oldest son.

Although we were blessedly free from any bus nuisance on our visit, previous trips to the park have demonstrated that some areas can be absolutely invaded with mosquitoes or deer flies. (I recall that the hiking trail that leads to an eagle’s nest has always been awful without bug spray.) I’d pack bug spray in your beach bag, just in case, if you plan on leaving the actual beach area.

I also know from previous trips that the park has a pretty nice nature center/gift shop, a decently-sized playground, offers rentals of chairs and umbrellas for beachgoers, and–I think?– has a cafe bordering one of the beaches. We skipped all those cool things, though, on our trip this day.

It was enough to get outside and walk by the ocean for just a couple of hours.

So–if the tone of my post hasn’t made it clear already–I recommend a visit to Honeymoon Island State Park for anyone who isn’t allergic to sunlight. Children will enjoy playing in the water, surf, or sand, and adults will like the peace and calm of a pretty-pristine beach nestled far enough from Clearwater to retain the old Florida feeling of simple lazy relaxation.