Weedon Island Preserve — Attraction in Saint Petersburg

My husband and I love to find new trails to walk. I came across this place in my search and I’m so glad I did! We will definitely be back.

Parking is free. When you first pull into Weedon preserve. You will drive about a mile or two before you come up on the first option for parking. You will see a gravel like area for a few cars to park at which will also have signage stating walking trail. These are the natural trails. They’re called north and south Boy Scout trails. These are beautiful natural trails. You will walk through trees on either side of you in nice cleared trail. You will walk over little ground bridges that add something fun to these trails.We walked both north and south trail and it was about 2 miles of trails. We do think that during rainy season these trails could be flooded in some areas. The bugs will also be pretty bad on these trails during the rainy seasons and hot Florida weather. We are here in March and it was absolutely beautiful this morning when we went.

Once you exit these trails you will come across signage stating the direction of the other trails . We continued to follow those signs to the board walk trails. You will come up to an area that starts the boardwalk trails/paved walking trail. The boardwalk trails are beautiful! They sit a few feet above ground. They wind you in and out of beautiful trees and at times have areas to walk out to water views. Because this preserve has a lot to explore, most of the time we were on the trails alone. Occasionally walking by people, but most of the time we were enjoying the peaceful outdoor outdoors alone. We went around 9am.

Eventually, we reached signs stating the direction to the information center. Once inside we were greeted by employees who give us information on the property and what all was inside this information center. This is a three-story building that has so much history. They even have a 1400 year-old canoe on display that they dug up on property. There is also a really cool walk-through exhibit that we did not expect to come across. Inside this building are the only bathrooms on property, a little gift shop with trinkets and a water fountain and water bottle fill station. They do not sell any water or drinks on property so make sure you bring your own.

Once we left the information center, we saw signs directing us to the Lookout tower. This trail was a short amount of boardwalk that eventually led to a three story tower. You could climb to the top to get views of the surrounding area.

My husband and I ended up exploring this whole property. The north and south Boy Scout trails were about 2 miles and rest of the boardwalk trails and information center were about 3 miles so in all we walked a little over 5 miles. You can walk as little or as much as you want on this property. Parking and everything is free so it’s such a great way to spend the day. They had a few areas with picnic tables if you choose to bring lunch and just enjoy the Florida outdoors.

Don’t forget your water and bug spray! We also Saw in other reviews that parking was difficult, but we did go in the morning at 9 AM, parked by the natural trails so we didn’t have this same issue. We were the only car parked in those few parking spots when we arrived.

No pets allowed at...

I went with a few friends/family members for a paddle boarding (SUP) venture at Weedon Island Preserve. It was our first time here but we were told you just follow the numbers. It's a 4.3 mile loop and the numbered paddling signs are very helpful. They start at 1 and end around 41 and on a non windy day can be done in 3 hours. We thought the paddling markers ended at 36 because that is what the map had on it but nope it goes past that.

We hit a windy day with 17mph winds and going between the paddling markers #36 to #41 was SUPER hard and we seriously considered calling for help as a few people in our group just could not make it. We saw several other people also struggle which is crazy as we could see like 30 boats not too far from us but they were out in the ocean too far to paddle to and waving my arms at them didn't seem to help so we went back and got the people that could not make it and tied them up to us and struggled, very slowly, to make the journey between the markers of 36 and 38. When we finally saw marker #1 we were all super happy. I knew before coming to make sure to not go during low tide but nobody ever mentioned the wind so definitely do not attempt if winds are anywhere near or past 15 mph.

The mangroves were super cool to go through but unfortunately people were going backwards through it as I guess it is not marked one way anywhere and it's super narrow so you have to watch out for the backwards traffic.

I took away one star because the parking is horrible! Tons of parking in the overflow parking area but it's about a half mile hike to go from the overflow parking to the launch area and with paddleboards it's impossible so we had to drive our paddleboards on top of our car holding onto them out the window and praying nothing falls off then drive the car back after dropping everybody off and then having to walk back. And when returning it was a hot mess as everybody else was doing the same thing so tons of people with kayaks, SUPs, etc trying to move out of the way as they wait for their car to pick them up. The launch site only has like 10 parking spaces so good luck getting one of those! The other downside, and huge downside, is that the only bathroom is at the launch site. The overflow parking has a Cultural and Natural History Center which I was told was the closest bathroom (which was a very far walk from where we were parked). When I got there the sign on the door said closed, go to the bathroom at the launch site. Well I'm not walking another half mile to go back to the launch site. One freaking bathroom for all these people and it's not even close to where we park?...

Perhaps this is a nice place to visit - I will never know because there isn't adequate parking. All 6 times I've tried to visit, I've had to leave and go somewhere else since I couldn't find a parking space.

Is there an alternative to driving? I'll let you decide: The nearest bus stop is an hour walk away. Perhaps one could bike there? The nearest public parking lot, Lee Street Parking, is 4.6 miles away along dangerous streets that completely lack bicycle lanes. All parking that is closer is private parking for businesses that will gleefully tow anyone who tries to park there for any other reason that to go to that particular business.

Of course, all these issues could be alleviated with the incredibly simple and essentially free act of allowing people to park along the road in the grass within the preserve, but no, that is forbidden and will in fact get you ticketed. This will never be allowed because it makes sense and it's apparently illegal for our astonishingly incompetent government to ever do the least little thing that makes sense.

So, for the vast majority of visitors to the Weedon Island Preserve, all they will ever do is circle around the parking lot endlessly praying for a parking spot to open, which I have never seen happen. And instead of our useless, parasitic government accepting that the lack of adequate parking at Weedon is an issue and doing something about it, they will continue to bask in their blinding incompetence and hand out tickets to anyone who attempts to do something that makes sense, like park on the grass.

Honestly, since it is impossible for anyone to ever visit this preserve, it should just be shuttered. That way, all the useless parasites that are employed there can be fired and forced to find real jobs for the first time in their...