St. Petersburg Parks Guide: Boyd Hill, Waterfront Parks, Dog Parks and Weedon Island

North Shore Park and Vinoy Park, two city parks on the St. Petersburg bayfront near downtown, open 30 minutes before sunrise and close at 11 p.m. (City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation, North Shore Park).

North Shore Park covers 33 acres at 901 North Shore Dr. NE on Tampa Bay. The city lists walking trails, a sandy beach, tennis courts, a softball field, a dog park and a large playground at North Shore, plus the North Shore Aquatic Complex and the North Shore Sports Complex (North Shore Park). Before swimming off North Shore Beach, the park page sends visitors to the latest city water testing results at stpete.org/RecWaterQuality.

Vinoy Park fronts Bayshore Dr. NE at 5th Ave. NE and takes its name from the Vinoy Park Hotel, which once sat beside it (City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation, Vinoy Park). The city rents Vinoy Park for events such as festivals, concerts and sporting events, and its waterfront recreation trails carry walkers, runners and bikers.

A change worth checking before a Vinoy Park visit: as of October 15, 2026 the city page says a large park improvement project will last several weeks and a portion of the park will be closed, and it lists the Parks and Recreation administrative office at 727-893-7441 for questions (Vinoy Park). The North Shore Park guide and the Vinoy Park guide each go deeper on one of these two bayfront parks.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, at 1101 Country Club Way S., charges $3 for adults and $1.50 for children ages 3 to 16, and children under 3 enter free (City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation, Boyd Hill Nature Preserve).

The city describes Boyd Hill as a 400 acre preserve on Lake Maggiore, with trails through habitats used by gopher tortoises, alligators and marsh rabbits; the Lake Maggiore Environmental Education Center on site runs camps, hikes and specialty programs (Boyd Hill Nature Preserve). The preserve phone is (727) 893-7326.

Frequent Boyd Hill visitors can skip the gate fee with an Individual Annual Trail Pass at $30 a year or a Family Annual Trail Pass at $50 a year; combined with a Friends of Boyd Hill Nature Preserve membership, the city sells the pair for $30 individual or $45 family (Boyd Hill trail passes).

Two practical notes for Boyd Hill. As of October 15, 2026 the nature center exhibits are closed for renovations, while the preserve and its trails remain open (Boyd Hill Nature Preserve). And the posted hours chart runs November 1 to February 25 and March 1 to October 31, so the last days of February are not listed; a call to the preserve settles those days. The Boyd Hill Nature Preserve guide covers the preserve in more depth.

Weedon Island Preserve is a Pinellas County preserve, not a city park, on Tampa Bay in north St. Petersburg at 1800 Weedon Drive NE (Pinellas County, Weedon Island Preserve).

Two county pages give different sizes for Weedon Island: the Pinellas County park page calls it a 3,000 acre natural area (Weedon Island Preserve), while the preserve's own county run site calls it a 3,195 acre natural area (Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center).

Pinellas County describes the Weedon Island site as mostly marine ecosystems with some uplands, where Indigenous peoples, including those of the Weeden Island Cultural Period, lived for thousands of years. The county lists more than 4.7 miles of boardwalks and trails, a fishing pier, a paddling launch with rentals and two self guided paddling trails, and notes that the north paddling trail is closed at this time (Weedon Island Preserve). State saltwater fishing regulations apply at Weedon Island, and commercial fishing is prohibited.

Inside the preserve, the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center opens Thursday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closes Monday to Wednesday and on county holidays (Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center). The preserve grounds open daily at 7 a.m. and close at a time posted at the entrance, about 15 minutes before sunset; they close the day after Thanksgiving and on December 25. The center phone is (727) 453-6500.

The Weedon Island Preserve guide goes further into the boardwalks, the archaeology and the paddling trails off Weedon Drive NE.

St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation lists six dog parks, at Coquina Key, Crescent Lake, Kenwood Park, Lake Vista Park, North Shore and Walter Fuller, open from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset (City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation, Dog Parks).

The St. Petersburg dog park rules are short: owners clean up waste, stay in the park and in view of their dogs, leash dogs entering and leaving, keep aggressive dogs out, keep dogs under voice control and fill any holes the dogs dig (Dog Parks). Each park closes for a while during routine upkeep, and the city says scheduled maintenance is weekly; questions about a closure go to 727-893-7441.

For a dog beach, Pinellas County says its Fort De Soto Park has the only dog park where dogs are allowed on the beach, in a designated area, plus two fenced areas for large and small dogs near the beach (Pinellas County, Fort De Soto Park).

St. Petersburg lists five city beaches, and the city page says swimming is not permitted at Lassing Park Beach, 2042 Beach Dr. SE (City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation, Beaches).

Lassing Park Beach offers over 14.2 acres of green space and opens 30 minutes before sunrise and closes 30 minutes after sunset. Maximo Park Beach, at Sunshine Skyway Ln. S. and Pinellas Point Dr. S., is the largest of the city's four archaeological sites, opens 30 minutes before sunrise, closes 30 minutes after sunset and has a 24 hour boat ramp. North Shore Beach stays open until 11 p.m. Spa Beach Park, at 600 2nd Ave. NE, is the downtown beach near the St. Pete Pier (Beaches).

The fifth, St. Petersburg Municipal Beach at Treasure Island, is a city beach at 11260 Gulf Blvd. in Treasure Island. As of October 15, 2026 the city says its parking lot is open and beach access is available, but the facility and amenities are closed until further notice (St. Petersburg beaches), so restrooms and other amenities there should not be counted on.

Fort De Soto Park, the largest park in the Pinellas County system, is a county park at 3500 Pinellas Bayway South in Tierra Verde, and the county charges a $6 parking fee (Pinellas County, Fort De Soto Park).

Pinellas County says Fort De Soto covers 1,136 acres made up of five interconnected keys and that annual attendance averages more than 2.7 million visitors. The $6 fee can be paid through the mobile parking apps, pay by text, the parking terminals or an annual pass; the app and text options add a $0.35 convenience fee. The park has seven miles of paved multipurpose trail linking North Beach, East Beach, the boat ramp and the camp area, and a 2,200 foot Barrier Free Nature Trail (Fort De Soto Park).

Fort De Soto is not one of the four guides in this St. Petersburg parks section; its beaches and fishing piers are covered under St. Petersburg recreation.

Four St. Petersburg parks guides sit under this section: Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, North Shore Park, Vinoy Park and Weedon Island Preserve.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation website and the Pinellas County website. The St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation office answers at (727) 893-7441, and Pinellas County Parks and Conservation Resources at (727) 582-2100 (Pinellas County).