Visitors can launch canoes and kayaks into a half-mile path through a mangrove at Howard Park.
TARPON SPRINGS – Tucked behind neighborhoods along the northwest corner of Pinellas County, Fred Howard Park offers visitors an array of activities, from swimming along the man-made beach, to picnicking and hiking under a shady canopy and kayaking through mangroves.
“This is one of our unique parks. It’s like two parks in one,” explained Trevor Spink, a chief ranger with the Pinellas County Parks Department. “After you’re out at the beach for an hour or so, it’s nice to come back into the park where you have the shade. We’re fortunate that way.”
Last year, rangers estimate that Fred Howard Park saw about 2.5 million visitors through its gates. Most of those people enjoyed the 78 acres that make up the traditional park, with two playgrounds, a ball field, hiking trails and plenty of restrooms. The nine shelters within the park can be reserved daily for a small fee.
Those who prefer their trails via water can launch their kayaks or canoes and explore a half-mile loop through mangroves. For a longer jaunt, the mangrove loop exits out into the Gulf of Mexico and back into the park for a 2-mile loop around Lake Avoca.
For Park Ranger Dave Hoelzer, it’s all about the 12 acres of beach, accessible via a mile-long causeway.
“To be there in the morning to see the sun come up or late at night to see the sun going down, it’s nice,” he said.
A lifeguard stays on duty between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., from March till September, for swimmers enjoying the waters of the Gulf. The white, sandy beach of Fred Howard Park includes two showers and boat rentals via a private contractor.
“If you’re a walker, this is a really good beach to come to walk in the mornings when it’s nice and cool, or somewhat cooler,” Park Ranger Dan Marshall said.
Pets aren’t allowed on the main beach area, but a small beach within the park is reserved for dogs.
A lot of residents in the nearby neighborhoods walk from their houses to the beach and back for a scenic, lengthy stroll, Marshall explained. And it’s a great place to bicycle.
From the causeway itself, residents can launch small watercraft, including jet skis, and throw out a line.
“If you like fishing, it’s a great park to fish, especially on incoming tide and outgoing tide,” Marshall said. “I’m not a fisherman, but I do like to see what they catch.”
During this time of year, pods of dolphins visit the park, also attracted by the schools of fish, he said. Spink said he once saw a 9-foot hammerhead shark dart under the bridge of the causeway.
“You never know what you’re going to see,” Marshall said.
Both the causeway and beach itself were built in 1968, Hoelzer said. The city of Tarpon Springs offered to donate Fred Howard Park, named after its former mayor, to the county if they agreed to build the beach.
Since then, the county has worked to maintain the sand, despite hurricanes and storms that continually wash it away.
“There’s a lot of upkeep, a lot of things that we do to it that keep it looking nice over the years,” Hoelzer said.
To help with the upkeep in face of budget shortfalls, the county instituted a $5 parking fee at Fred Howard Park as of January this year. The new cost drew some complaints from locals initially, which Spink said was understandable.
“Some people have been coming here for 30 years, and they’ve not had to pay,” he said. “There was opposition to that, but people now understand. And remember, the money’s going back into the parks.”
On the flip side, the fee has discouraged the number of out-of-county visitors who used to come from as far away as Polk County, Marshall explained.
“We were the only (beach) park that didn’t charge in five counties around us for years,” he said.
Last year, the Fred Howard Park beach saw just under a million cars park at the beach with an average of 2.3 visitors per car, Hoelzer explained. Since the fee went into effect, charged to visitors who park along the causeway or at the beach, the number of beach-goers has decreased.
“We’re a nicer, quieter community park. People see that,” Marshall said. “There’s less usage on the parks and the facilities. In the long run, it’s costing us less to maintain.”
Spink, who lives in Palm Harbor, pointed out that all parking prior to the causeway is still free.
“My wife and I and my daughter come up here on my days off. She likes to park in the park, walk out the causeway, around the beach and back,” he said.
Spink also said that, as a manager to several north county parks, he can attest that Fred Howard Park’s visitors are among the most friendly.
“The one thing I have to say about Fred Howard Park, when you come into this park, people wave to you,” Spink said. “I wanted to buy one of those hands that go on the dashboard, because you’re constantly waving to people.”
Fulfilling the role of a semi-law enforcement position requires park rangers to deal with “everything from the good, the bad and the ugly,” including enforcing the no-alcohol rule to making sure visitors respect others’ shelter reservations, Marshall said.
But along with enjoying the outdoors, rangers have to love people, be patient and tolerable, Spink said. They also have to love answering a slew of questions, which range from the weather and fishing to information about the area and the history of the park itself.
“After a while, you know everybody. The same people come in the mornings, same people walk their dog, the same people walk, the same people watch the sunset,” Hoelzer said. “They’re all here to have fun.”
The entrance to Fred Howard Park is at the corner of Sunset Drive and Seaside Drive in Tarpon Springs. The address is 1700 Sunset Drive.
Annual parking passes cost $75 or $55 for those older than 65.
![[Image]](/content_images/091312_out-01a.jpg)
![[Image]](/content_images/091312_out-01b.jpg)
![[Image]](/content_images/070312_pco-01z_front.jpg)
