Paddling near St. Petersburg, FL

Two coasts meet at St. Petersburg: the city occupies the lower Pinellas Peninsula with Tampa Bay on one flank and the Gulf of Mexico on the other, so a single morning can move from city-adjacent water like Lake Maggiore and Coffee Pot Bayou out to barrier-island sandbars. The Pinellas County Blueways threads the whole peninsula in eight mapped sections, and the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail—a 1,515-mile national route—runs straight past these shores.