Upper Tampa Bay Park

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Upper Tampa Bay Park is located at 8001 Double Branch Road just off of West Hillsborough Ave in Tampa, Florida. Over 2000 acres of woodlands, wetlands and estuaries open to the public from 8am to 6pm seven days a week except for Christmas Day. Entrance fee is only two bucks. Visitors can hike, picnic, camp, fish, use the boat ramp to launch their own or rent canoes or kayaks on site. Go early if you plan on birding--sun gets high and hot quickly--and be aware some of the trails are shelled so not so easy to move stealthily through the forest primeval.

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Even so it's worth the price of admission and worth visiting. A great variety of birds--including raptors--nest there. There are pine wood flats, hardwood hammocks, brackish wetlands and the islands of Upper Tampa Bay.
For more information go to the Hillsborough County Parks web page.

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/parks/parkservices/regionalsites.cfm?facilitydetailid=526&selparks=-1&selcategory=-1&zipcode=&First=11&Last=15