I found out pretty soon into my State Parking journey that some of the parks were only accessible by boat. It still did not occur to me to figure out which ones were on that list until the GPS kept trying to take me to them because my car does not transform into a boat.
I thought I would be prepared for my visit to Don Pedro so I went to the store and purchased a one person raft. I figured I would just blow up my raft and paddle on over. I had never blown up a raft or sat in a raft but thought it couldn’t be that hard, right? I drove to Cape Haze Peninsula, the land portion of the park. I left the raft in the car so I could check out the situation. I was not sure where I would launch or even where I was going once I did get in the water.
I followed the GPS to the end of the dock and looked in the direction of the island. I stood at the end of the dock for a long time, looking over at that island, thinking about the flimsy raft in the back seat of my car. I just could not envision that whole process happening. There was no way in hell I was going to paddle all the way over to that island. Could I even paddle? Did I even know how? All questions I did not know the answers to and I was not willing to find out, that day.
I took a deep breath, in defeat. I had to turn back around and let that dream go, that day. I needed to be smart and keep myself alive, at least until I completed my mission. Paddling is a great way to get over there but choosing the proper vessel is very important. Something I needed to obtain before my trip over to Don Pedro Island.

Before you visit, make sure you check out the parks website for all of the up-to-date park information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/don-pedro-island-state-park