Matanzas Pass

I'm not going to lie, the best part about the Matanzas Pass trip wasn't the boardwalk or the history lesson. It was the sea grape jelly with crackers. Hands down. That being said, the boardwalk was pretty fun. I've lived in Florida my whole life, so I already knew the difference between mangroves. It was pretty cool to see the bay, it was actually nice that day. The history lesson was interesting, I didn't realize there had been bridges previous to the one that exists today.

This is a picture from the covered area looking out into the bay. If you zoom in on the bottom center of the picture you can see a few lightning whelks.


Red and black mangroves on the right of the boardwalk.


Red and black mangroves on the left of the boardwalk.

Conservation 20/20, the Lee County department that manages the Matanzas Pass preserve, buys property and restores it to its "natural" state. I don't believe that county tax dollars should be spent this way because there is too much potential for corruption. A landowner that finds himself in possession of otherwise worthless real estate could easily make a payoff to a county commissioner in exchange for purchasing the land, for example.

Other than the Matanzas Pass preserve, I have visited the Six Mile Cypress Preserve, Koreshan, Deep Lagoon, Billy Creek, and a few others.