Sarasota’s Siesta Key is world-famous for its perfect Crescent Beach, repeatedly rated #1 in the U.S.
But you don’t hear much about Siesta Key kayaking, and that’s an oversight. We discovered an especially pretty kayak trail on the southern end of the barrier island. And, happily, it includes one of everyone’s favorite types of paddling destinations: A hidden beach.
Siesta Key is an eight-mile-long barrier island extending south of Sarasota with multiple beaches, not just the “perfect” Crescent Beach. The southernmost public beach, which locals all call Hidden Beach, is reachable only by boat, and it is part of an exceptional kayak trail.
Where to start your Siesta Key kayaking outing
Turtle Beach, a public beach on the south end of Siesta Key with lots of (free!) parking, is the place to launch or rent your kayak. If you’re staying on the island, you can take the free trolley to Turtle Beach.
The boat launch is free to use and there are five kayaking outfitters who have concessions to rent kayaks and SUPs and run tours from that location. With so many outfitters, you probably don’t need reservations.
Those unfamiliar with the Florida flora and fauna might benefit from the group tours. When we paddled, we overheard very knowledgeable guides giving interesting talks about the area to small groups of paddlers.
Kayak rental rates start around $30 for a single and $60 for a tandem. Guided tours are $50 to $75 per person, though private guides will cost more and some outfitters offer special upgraded services, like guided kayak fishing.
The Siesta Key kayaking trail in Sarasota
From Turtle Beach, you are launching into the Neville Marine Preserve Trail in Little Sarasota Bay.
Your first section is a lagoon called Blind Pass that is lined for a half mile with houses and condos before it opens up to a natural landscape. Despite this development on Blind Pass, we saw a dolphin cruising on this waterway and there are plenty of birds, including an active osprey nest at the end of the peninsula that forms the channel.
In an easy two-hour paddle, you can continue south here through a mangrove-lined waterway around two islands that comprise the Jim Neville Marine Preserve and then loop north and back around to Turtle Beach.
This middle section of the trail around the preserve is a great place for seeing birds — we spotted two roseate spoonbills among several other types. It is too shallow for power boats and there are no houses, so it is feels serene and wild.
After you leave Blind Pass lagoon, shortly on your right you will see a deteriorating seawall amid the mangroves. Paddle into the passageway for a lovely small lagoon that was once a shark tank operated by Mote Marine Laboratory. Mote and the sharks are long gone, but the wall remains, and it’s a pretty spot with a secret feel.
Just beyond the shark tank you come to a sandy beach where you can land and get out. This is Hidden Beach, officially known as Palmer Point Park. Despite the lack of road access, this is a public beach operated by Sarasota County. It’s accessible only by boat. There are no restrooms or facilities of any kind.
On busy weekend afternoons, the sandy landing area will be filled with both power boats (who can reach it from the south via the Intracoastal Waterway) and kayaks. On our second paddle on this trail, we got up early on a weekday and were the first ones here, and we had it gloriously to ourselves.
We walked a mile south where we saw only one set of previous footprints and those of the dog who was obviously being walked.
Hidden Beach/Palmer Point Park has a short trail through the dunes.
Not far to the north, the park ends abruptly with a massive house that appears to be being eaten by the Gulf. It and its pool extend into the water, blocking those on foot. (I suppose you could swim around it and reach Turtle Beach, which is only a half mile north.) When we paddled, it was listed as for sale for $6.8 million.
This house is infamous in the area. Built in 1979, according to the local Herald-Tribune, it was the last house on Siesta Key to be allowed to build a seawall before county ordinance prevented it. It figures in the closing of Midnight Pass, which is a fascinating story.
Siesta Key, the closing of Midnight Pass and Hidden Beach
As you drive around Siesta Key, you will see signs that say “Restore Midnight Pass.” You have to be a local to know what that’s about.
Midnight Pass formed in the 1920s when a hurricane blew through a narrow strip of sand and created a small pass (a channel between inland waters and the Gulf.)
This pass was the dividing line between Siesta Key, to the north, and Casey Key, to the south. There is no road that connects the two islands and Hidden Beach (officially Palmer Point Park) separates them.
In the 1950s, Midnight Pass was 13 feet deep and 500 feet wide.
But barrier islands in their wild state are not static, plus dredging and hurricanes changed the dynamics. Over the years, Midnight Pass kept shifting and changing in depth. Eventually Midnight Pass was a threat to two nearby Siesta Key homes — the home you now see so perilously close to the beach at the north end of Hidden Beach and the home of abstract expressionist artist and influential Siesta Key resident Syd Solomon.
To save the homes, the county tried to move the pass — three times! But the water just wouldn’t flow into the newly dug tidal inlet. The result: Midnight Pass was closed in its original location AND in the newly dug inlet became land too, creating continuous land where there had been two islands.
The sea eventually took back the land around Syd Solomon’s home, which collapsed and could not be saved. It was demolished in 2004. The other home remains — for now. (Here’s more on this house.)
Because no one owned the land that had been Midnight Pass, the ground that emerged was publicly owned, and thus Sarasota County created Palmer Point Park here.
Will Midnight Pass be restored? As I talked to locals, most seemed to think it is hard to believe that in this era of environmental sensitivity that Midnight Pass would be re-established. Those favoring it are primarily boaters and fishermen on Siesta Key.
A kayak tour guide with whom I was chatting, however, pointed out that nature will have the last word, as it always does. Midnight Pass will be restored — next time a big enough hurricane blows through here.
Sources: Thanks to “An Illustrated History of Siesta Key” by Philip M. Farrell and Thomas Philip Farrell for the history of Midnight Pass.
For a longer Siesta Key kayaking outing, continue south
The Neville Marine Preserve Trail continues several miles south of Hidden Beach and also to the north. We did not get to paddle in either of those directions.
A few things to keep in mind: The water around the Neville Preserve is very shallow and at the lowest tides, you just might not be able to paddle between some of the mangrove islands. (We paddled this area twice and one of those times it was too shallow to complete the loop around Neville Marine Preserve.)
Another thing to consider: The Intracoastal Waterway and its power boats run along the eastern side of Little Sarasota Bay, so you want to plan your paddle to avoid boat traffic.
Your safest and most scenic route would be to hug the shores south along Little Sarasota Bay and cross to the other side at Blackburn Point Road in Casey Key. That southern section of Little Sarasota Bay has several mangrove islands on each side of the waterway and looks like a lovely place to kayak where paddlers can explore areas not accessible to power boats.
On the east side of Little Sarasota Bay as your return north to Turtle Beach, you will pass the Osprey Fishing Pier and the shoreline of Historic Spanish Point, another interesting and scenic spot.
Other places for kayaking in Sarasota
The Lido Key Mangrove Trail is a well-known scenic kayak trail in Sarasota close to downtown. In addition to friendly cormorants and shaded mangrove tunnels, this trail is popular in summer because there is a sandbar where you can swim. Here’s a Florida Rambler story on the Lido Key Mangrove Trail.
Sarasota County publishes an excellent guide to kayaking Sarasota with trails, maps and descriptions. This guide lists 11 kayak trails, including the Neville Marine Preserve Trail, the subject of this story.
Things to do in and near Sarasota
- Historic Spanish Point in Osprey
- Beaches of Venice: The sands of time
- Legacy Trail and Venetian Waterway Park
- Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota
- Gamble Manson: Civil War plantation near Sarasota
- Casey Key: Hidden treasure for bicyclists, beach lovers
The author, Bonnie Gross, travels with her husband David Blasco, discovering off-the-beaten path places to hike, kayak, bike, swim and explore. Florida Rambler was founded in 2010 by Bonnie and fellow journalist Bob Rountree, two long-time Florida residents who have spent decades exploring the Florida outdoors. Their articles have been published in the Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, The Guardian and Visit Florida.