Leffis Key Preserve — Attraction in Brandenton Beach

I like to bring my out-of-state houseguests here. It's a mellow and memorable experience of Florida for them. There are pathways and boardwalks that meander around along the shoreline, sometimes well shaded by mangroves. You get startling vistas and view of many little creatures and plants.

My favorite thing to do is bring one friend for a quality conversation while we meander around the paths. It's just a beautiful, peaceful way to get caught up with someone.

In the morning, I recommend starting directly across the street at the little beach cafe, then walk or drive over to the Leffis Key walk.

In the afternoon, come after lunch, then continue walking (or drive over) to the beach area under the bridge, on the Gulf side. There are a few park benches for sitting and watching the sunset. It reminds me a little of Key West. (Just make sure you don't try to swim across the pass to the next Key, which is Longboat Key. The currents are too strong and will take you far out...

At the southern end of Anna Maria, on the left as you go, is Leffis Key. You wouldn't think Leffis is an island, but as you walk from the parking lot on the sandy trail you start to cross through and over mangrove swamp. Eventually you'll make your way to several lookout points that bring you to the edge of the mangrove on the intracoastal waterway. And you realize that you've really been walking over the water most of the time.

Leffis is an easy to medium walk on sandy trails and boardwalks. At the center is a sand hill with a couple of tiki covered picnic tables with great views of the waterway and the ocean. The trail up doesn't have stairs. Be careful if you have balance issues.

If you're looking for what the barrier islands looked like before the tourists, Leffis Key is a great easy loop through the mangroves to see what it might have...

Our morning walk took us to this small, idyllic nature reserve. Since it rained at night, it was very foggy early in the morning, which gave the landscape something mystical. Since it is otherwise very moist in the mangroves, it was therefore even wetter than usual. But this did not stop our walk. What we noticed were the spider threads that hung over the paths and the empty spider webs. And then we saw one! WIKIPEDIA: Gasteracantha cancriformis is a species of spider from the real web spider family (Araneidae), which is native to North and Central America and the Caribbean. The species name "cancriformis" is Latin and means "cancerous". Beautiful!!! And also the "mangrove cancer" that we saw later. During our stay at AMI we went there often in the morning and really enjoyed the nature and...