“Oou oou” The haunting trill echoed through the pine trees. In the distance, a lone dove perched on top of a nest in a treetop. It cried out into the wilderness, a sad song among the chirps and tweets of the other feathered inhabitants that habituate this wild green space.

Key Vista Nature Park in Holiday offers an Idyllic Escape

Located on Pasco County’s Gulf Coast, Key Vista Nature Park is like a balm to a busy soul. You can lose yourself in nature in this surprising Nature Coast park.

Several hiking trails lead from the parking lot, but unmarked, they invite the adventurous to hike forth and explore. The 1.5 miles of trails all loop through the pine scrublands and meet eventually in the 101 acres of wilderness, but if you’re looking for signage to tell you which way to go, this might not be for you.

We drove through quiet subdivisions just north of Tarpon Springs to reach Pasco County’s Key Vista Nature Park. There’s a restroom by the park entrance and a shaded kiosk with lots of info about the park’s flora and fauna. Someone even added a history of pirate activity in the area, dating back to the 1500s. But park map? You won’t find one there!

Choose Your Trail

We were on a ladies’ hiking day out and ready for an outdoor adventure. We grabbed our water bottles, locked the car, and wondered which trail to take. We spotted a group of 3 men pulling a wagon of fishing buckets and poles. They headed down the center trail.

An older man in hiking boots and a hat headed down the path by the restroom, where a couple and their kids had just come up. We followed him. He looked like he knew where things were for hikers. Immediately on the trail, we heard the high-pitched call of an osprey, stopping to see if we could see the bird, and promptly losing the hiker we were following.

A well-worn path of sugar sand and pine needles wound through the arid scrub landscape. Pine trees towered above, and below stands of palmettoes and wildflowers peppered the forest floor.

A gopher tortoise chomped on juicy grass beside a bed of purple flowering lupine. Beside it, a scraggly wild Chickasaw plum shaded them both. Wild grape vines covered fallen brush like a camouflage netting, providing shade and shelter for the ecosystem’s smaller critters.

Our trail met with one of the others from the parking lot at an open meadow with a lone picnic table and trash can affixed to a post, the only interior signs that this was a park.

Sandy Shores & Mangrove Tunnels

We continued on our way and around a bend when the view of green-blue water through a cut in the trees caught our line of vision. To the right of it, a 3-story wooden observation tower rose into view. The base of the platform was decorated with wild grape vines.

Tower or water. Which would you choose? The color of the water was too hard to resist, and we dove down the tiny path through the underbrush to a stretch of white sandy shoreline at the water’s edge.

Beach would not be the real term to use, and like the hiking trail signs, or lack of them, Key Visita Nature Park proved once again to defy the expected.

The sandy strip of land stretched out on either side of us along the park’s Gulf coast border but stands of black and red mangroves along the water broke up the sandy areas into smaller, more private sections. Paths cut through the mangroves, giving it a private island oasis feel.

Had we come earlier, we might have felt like Robinson Crusoe. But on this Sunday afternoon, the locals had descended onto the park for a day in the Florida outdoors.

There is no swimming here, due to the oyster beds in the water, but children played along the shoreline, building sandcastles and marveling at the physics of water. Anglers waded into the water to cast their lines and teens sunbathed with their air pods in, enjoying the sunny day, while dog owners guided their furry friends around the human obstacles along the coastal path.

We headed north through the mangrove tunnel paths, where red mangrove roots entwined with one another in an elaborate dance of nature. Around their leggy roots, the black mangrove roots rose from the sandy earth like an audience to watch the dance.

Trail on Rocky Creek

We hiked across the beach trail until we saw the three fishermen from the parking lot. They had set up their gear in the shady area along the limestone rocks at the mouth of Rocky Creek. The tidal Rocky Creek provides the northern border of Key Vista Nature Park.

Our feet took us through the shaded trail alongside the creek. There were cuts to the water for fishing spots and natural limestone formations and benches trailside to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

The creek widened the farther we went. A motorboat puttered by, heading out to the gulf while a group of teenagers argued in a canoe about who was not paddling correctly. The trail eventually turned away from the creek to lead back to the parking lot.

Observation Tower at Key Vista Nature Park

We looped back to climb the observation tower and were awarded an expansive view of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a sunny afternoon and the winds whipped around us on the top floor of the tower. To the south, we could see the fishing pier at the neighboring park.

Back down to land, we found the one sign in the park, “Anclote Gulf Park. Boardwalk to Dog Park.”

The trail cut through a sunny scrubland area of the park. Sulphur rotten-egg smells emitted from the tidal creek under a small boardwalk along the trail and mosquitoes swarmed around the wetlands. We picked up our pace and eventually reached the steps to the boardwalk. It twisted and turned over a mangrove swamp. A pair of Ibis watched us from a perch in their tree as we passed, knowing we’d be back. Past red, black, and white mangroves, we eventually came to the Anclote Gulf Park.

The complete opposite of Key Vista, this park sported paved paths, mowed grass, a playground, and concrete restrooms. It looked nice. It looked clean, but it wasn’t for us. We backtracked on the boardwalk back to Key Vista and the observation tower and rejoined our original path back toward the parking lot.

That’s when we heard the call in the woods. Oou oou. It sounded like a sad owl. Looking up we saw the mourning dove, calling out. Was it in search of a mate that might never return or calling to its children? We would never know.

Dining Nearby

After a day of outdoor recreation, dining options abound at the nearby Greek Floridian town of Tarpon Springs. Grab a traditional Greek meal in one of the restaurants along Dodecanese Street in the Sponge Capital of the World or take a turn onto Main Street to sample one of the many options in downtown New Port Richey, ranging from Thai and Sushi to bar food and even traditional high tea.

Things to Know about Key Vista Nature Park

• Key Vista Nature Park is located in Pasco County at 2700 Baillies Bluff Road, Holiday, FL 34691
• This is a fee-free county park.
• Dogs on a leash are allowed.
• Fishing is allowed with a Florida fishing license.
• Swimming is not permitted.
• Park closes at sunset.

If winging it is not your style, you can find a good trail map of Key Visita Nature Park on the FloridaHikes! website.