Largo Central Park Nature Preserve
Updated: Aug 22, 2021
Hidden In The Heart of Largo, FL!
This little nugget has been hiding in plain sight! In the heart of Largo, FL you'll find this small nature preserve with a .75 mile asphalt trail, boardwalks, a lookout tower and the beginning of a 5 mile kayak/canoe route.
Ok! I confess! I had very low expectations when coming to this park. The surrounding area could seem a little... well... sketchy. However as soon as we crossed the threshold of the park, I was surprised! My initial thought was: Quaint, but enough of that! Lets get to it!
Difficulty
Easy peasy. A large majority of the walkways are on an asphalt trail encompassing the entirety of the park. There's a small gravel trail that goes around the north side, but it's packed in pretty well and even, not much room to lose your footing. There's also a couple of boardwalk trails that are fairly slippery when they're wet! One leads you to a lookout tower, another through the dense forest-like center of the park, and of one that goes around the outside of a small pond.
The paved trail had some people power walking around it multiple times getting their steps in.
Wildlife
The one thing that made the biggest impression on me was the wildlife. While I found myself fascinated with the turtles popping their heads up in the waterways, and the plethora of different types of herons. Jess, as always, got stuck on the ducks. She spent a majority of our time there sitting on a bench talking to the ducks that were following her around looking for food. We had also spotted a spoonbill, Ibisees... or Ibisi, multiple of the Ibis variety. I was almost mugged by two squirrels (I'm not the most fond of them because of a traumatizing experience), we had also spotted a cottontail bunny. We saved the best for last though! Even though we were unable to snag a picture, there had to have been 3 or 4 otters in the pond encircled by a board walk.
Views
I really want to say there were some nice views, and remember this is only an opinion! I felt let down. Along the west side of the the preserve runs a serene little bayou. This was the highlight of our excursion... however that's only because it was raining and the sound of water on water is mesmerizing, I want to fall asleep just recalling that memory. The boardwalks are nice and make you feel like you have taken a step out of busy city life and into the world before civilization. The lookout tower was the biggest let down, you get to the top to see..... nothing. Well nothing noteworthy, just a small pond, the backs of some apartment buildings, powerlines. The water ways are relaxing to walk by, but the occasional transmission tower, golf course on the entire east side and visible buildings made this less of a "view based" trip.
Overall this park is great for taking a break, bringing the kids, getting a little bit of exercise in and feeding the ducks. However if you plan to come here to take in wonderous sights and be challenged, this is one you can skip right over.
Remember to hit the ❤️ button and tell us what you think! Agree? Disagree? Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments!
Share your excurzions on social media with #myexcurzion for a chance to be featured!