Key Vista
North coast launch
Key Vista is a north-coast kayak and paddleboard launch, free to park.
Key Vista is a county nature park north of Tarpon Springs, and the launch is a carry across the beach into the same shallow Gulf water you would reach from Anclote River Park just south. The draw is quiet: trails run through coastal scrub and pine out to a small Gulf-front beach, and on a weekday morning you can have the put-in to yourself. The water off the beach is very skinny, so plan this one around the tide. At low water you will wade your board out a long way before it floats, and there is nothing between you and the wind once you clear the sand. One honest heads-up: the Duke Energy plant sits right next door, close enough that some visitors note the look of it and an occasional odor off the stacks. Come on a higher tide and a calm morning and it is an easy, uncrowded launch.
Where do I park, and is it free?
- Cost
- Free
- Parking
- Moderate
Free county nature park with trails and a beach carry-launch. Duke Energy plant adjacent.
How clear is the water?
Very shallow open-Gulf water off the beach.
What will I see?
- Manatees nose into the warm shallows on the cold winter days, the same water they use off Anclote
- Wading birds and shorebirds working the flats, ospreys over the scrub, dolphins out past the shallows
What's the fishing like?
Shallow Gulf flats: trout and redfish, snook in the warm months. Very skinny water rewards a higher tide.
How do I share the water here?
The shallows off the beach are seagrass, the nursery for the trout and redfish people fish here. Walk your board out past the grass to open sand before you climb on rather than dragging a fin through it, and on the trails stay on the marked path so you are not cutting through the scrub the park was set aside to protect.