Upper Tampa Bay Park
Central bay launch
Upper Tampa Bay Park is a central-bay kayak and paddleboard launch, $2 / vehicle to park.
Up in the northwest corner of Old Tampa Bay near Oldsmar, this county conservation park is the quiet one, far enough off the highway that the traffic noise just falls away. The kayak and canoe launch is by the nature center, and it puts you onto Double Branch Bay, a shallow, sand-bottomed maze of mangrove channels and oyster bars that paddles more like a tidal river than open water. That shallowness is the thing to plan around: go on a higher tide, because at low water you will be picking past oyster bars and dragging across grass, and the current pulls hard through the channels when the tide is moving. If you do not have a board, the center rents canoes and kayaks, last checked around twenty-five dollars for four hours, and there is a wash rack and hose to rinse the salt off afterward. The park also has boardwalk nature trails worth a walk, where people regularly turn up bald eagles, gopher tortoises, and the occasional bobcat.
Where do I park, and is it free?
- Cost
- $2 / vehicle (as of 2026-06)
- Parking
- Moderate
- Restrooms
- yes
Hillsborough County regional park; launch at the Nature Center. Rentals can be unavailable at high tide.
How clear is the water?
Sheltered mangrove-creek water.
What will I see?
- Bald eagles and red-shouldered hawks over the trails, bobcats and gopher tortoises on the upland paths
- Wading birds through the mangrove creeks, dolphins out in Old Tampa Bay
- Manatees graze the bay's seagrass in the warmer months
- Redfish and snook back in the creeks, trout on the flats at higher water
What's the fishing like?
Mangrove creeks and inner bay: redfish and snook in the creeks, trout on the flats at higher water.
How do I share the water here?
This has been a protected county conservation park since 1982, and the bottom you paddle over is oyster bar and seagrass, with Indigenous shell mounds scattered through the park on land. Stay in the deeper channels on a low tide rather than scraping across the bars and the grass, and leave the shell mounds and middens alone: they are protected archaeological sites, not loose shell to pick through.