Fort Myer Beach’s Bowditch Point Park: A Great Place to Enjoy the Sunset
Bowditch Point Park in Fort Myers is a small 17-acre park at the north end of Fort Myers Beach. Though small, it protects a critically important part of the island, preventing it from being developed. I’m always a fan of that because parks are better than condo towers, especially on Florida’s barrier islands.
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This park is one of many which has still not recovered after Hurricane Ian in 2022. One-two flooding punches from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 didn’t help matters. This is one of the many reasons I’m a proponent for leaving barrier islands undeveloped to do what they do best, provide protection for the mainland.
Seven acres of Bowditch Point Park is lightly developed as for passive recreation. Think restrooms, parking lot, tables and grills. The other ten acres encompass natural restoration areas. It’s a popular park for sunset watching and enjoying a little beach time. Beach shoes are recommended because debris still washes ashore and/or is buried in the sand. Please be careful when you head to this park.
Original Visit to Bowditch Beach Park
I first visited this park in the very early days of this blog. I was going to delete the diary-style part, but I really want to preserve that, mostly because it’s a fun part of my son’s childhood that I don’t want to lose. So here’s part of the original blog post. Enjoy!
The Drive to Fort Myers
My Facebook status this morning reads, “Holy shit! My child moves at the speed of snail.” (He was 11 at the time.) By the time I got him out the door, checked all the fluids, fueled up, and returned home for things I’d forgotten three times, two hours had passed. We finally left Dunedin for the three hour drive south to Dunedin. Let Nick’s birthday weekend begin!
Finding Fort Myers Beach
We checked in, settled in, and enjoyed the pool at the hotel but by 6 PM, I was ready to get to the beach. I’d found Bowditch Point Park on Google maps the evening while looking for the best places to shoot sunsets and play on the beach. This is where we headed.
As soon as we hit the mangroves along San Carlos, the salt air cleared my brain and all I could think was, “Please don’t ever take me away from sea.” The further west I drive, the more salt-worn buildings and businesses became. Castle Golf gave way to Pirate Golf. Stores like Beach Pottery and Winds popped up more frequently. All the restaurants had “fish” in their name. And then, there was the bridge with a marina to one side and boat sales to the other. We’re here!
Fort Myers Beach reminds me of so many other beach towns around Florida. It’s small, crowded, and bright. The darkening Gulf beyond displayed a border of sun, coral, and lime buildings. Neon was beginning to glow against dusk. Vacation rentals hawked their rooms alongside time shares painted in an endless mural of sea life. We crawled through the main intersection – a stop sign in one direction and yield sign in the other – crawled through a second stop sign, and suddenly, were mostly alone in a residential neighborhood of more time shares and vacation rentals.
Bowditch Point Park occupies the north end of the island. A parking lot still half full led to restrooms and municipal buildings, an adjacent picnic area, and a long wood ramp to the beach. It’s a very well-designed park, clean, lots of signage. At least half of the park is protected as beach ecosystem with its flowers, sea grape trees, sea oats, and the variety of grasses found in those areas. After paying for parking, I grabbed my camera bag and headed out to the beach.
Sunset at Bowditch Point Park
The sun was hiding behind clouds. What the heck! I walked to the point of the beach, watched an engagement photo shoot use the gray and pink clouds as a background, watched a barge chug through the channel. The sun didn’t come out from behind the clouds hovering just over the horizon. Yes, the colors on the clouds are pretty, and I’m glad the clouds were there because they add interest, but I’d like a peek at the sun.
I snapped off several photos as the light changed through the hour, took a couple of photos of other things on the beach, did a cursory search for shells, watched people walk by and composed fake mini life stories for them in my mind.
As I headed back in along the beach, I looked east and saw a ray shooting out of the clouds over town. Wait, the sun sets to the west, not the east. I tracked the ray up, up, across, all the way to the clouds obscuring the sun. I had to just stand and look at this ray for a minute. I’d never seen a complete one like this, one that arcs fully across the sky the way this one did. It wasn’t beautiful or stunning or anything like that. It was just unusual, and I’m grateful I was here to see it.
To get off Fort Myers Beach and head back to Fort Myers and the mainland, you have to detour through the shopping district. Coincidence or excellent design? It was 7:30 PM. The stores were still open, blasting fluorescent light into the street. Neon signs lit the night in blues, greens and pinks, brighter than but reminiscent of the buildings along the beach. People spilled out of roadside shacks, chasing the music with pints in hand. One more turn, and we were back on San Carlos. The music and lights faded as we climbed the bridge, then disappeared as suddenly as the sun did over the horizon.
The photos were great 11 years ago. Not so much now. I do like that vintage feel of the “Danger Rocks” photo. I think…I might have to go spend some time in Fort Myers again. But I’m going to wait until more of the parks and preserves are open. There’s a lot to see down there, like Mound House (which is open) and Matanzas Pass Preserve.
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