Gasparilla Island State Park is a Florida State Park located south of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island off Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound. Activities include swimming and fishing along with shelling, picnicking, and viewing the Historic Port Boca Grande Lighthouse. Visitors can also enjoy snorkeling, and nature study.
Among the wildlife of the park are West Indian Manatee, Gopher Tortoise, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Least Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, and Black Skimmer.
The park admission fee is $3.00 per vehicle or golf cart, $2.00 per pedestrian or bicycle and a donation of $2.00 is requested for the Light House.
Amenities include four parking lots; two picnic areas, with covered tables; beaches; and Historic Port Boca Grande Lighthouse on the southern end of the island. The Port Boca Grande Light House contains a museum and gift shop, and is run by the Barrier Island Park Society, a non profit that supports the Gasparilla Island State Park. The park is open from 8:00 am till sundown year round. The Light House is open from 10:00am – 4:00pm Monday - Saturday, and 12:00pm – 4:00pm on Sundays, ours change off season call for hours during the summer.
Read more about Gasparilla Island State Park: Gallery, References and External Links
Famous quotes containing the words island, state and/or park:
“If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from others lands, but a continent that joins to them.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“I ask especially that no state shall, by law or otherwise, authorize the return of the saloon, either in its old form or in some modern guise.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?”
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)