I pulled up the directions for Cockroach Bay twice and both times it said it was closed, forever, which just wasn’t true. I took a chance and headed over there because I needed to take it off my list. To my surprise it was not closed, in fact it was very busy and running like a well oiled machine.
Contrary to the name, the bay is NOT filled with cockroaches. Legend has it that the Spanish explorers used to call Horseshoe crabs cockroaches, and at one point there were a lot of them in that bay. It’s a pretty cool place to launch into the water and they have a nice little system in place. You park your car after unloading your watercraft and then a person comes down and picks you up in the golf cart to take you back to the water.
When the lady was driving me to the water she told me not to worry that I didn’t have a boat because if I just stood there long enough someone would offer to take me with them. Good information to know for the future but the day I was visiting was scheduled for land exploration only.
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/cockroach-bay-preserve-state-park
