Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

On a recent weekend, KinderKid hosted a little visitor. And oh, how they had fun!! There was swimming, playing Princess, and a Cinco de Mayo party with lots of juice. Alas, even for five-year-olds, great weekends must come to an end. Lil Visitor had to be taken home Sunday evening.

Before dropping her off, and without much planning, wifey and I decided to take the KinderKid and Lil Visitor to a local park. But which one? From Brandon heading northwest, I tried to remember where all the parks were. Ybor City has a couple, but I don’t think they include playgrounds. There was a reading festival at the Germany – we could stop at Curtis Hixon. But there is no playground there, either. How about Cotanchobee? That’s a new park, but no picnic tables. Where else could we go?

“Hey!” I thought. (I often think “Hey” before anything else). I had driven by a park in Palmetto Beach before, but never took a real good look. Maybe we could stop there. “Turn here.” I said to wifey, as we passed 34th St.

Wisely, she ignored me and turned south at 26th. Making our way through the working class neighborhood, we swung alongside DeSoto Park and took a quick look. There were picnic tables, a playground, and most important to the grownups – SHADE. Perfect.

A quick clarification is in order here. I am not talking about Fort DeSoto in Pinellas County, which is a great park in it’s own right. This City of Tampa DeSoto Park is located south of Ybor City in the Palmetto Beach area.

DeSoto is everything a park should be. In addition to the amenities mentioned above, there is a volleyball net, walking trail, basketball courts, and even a skate park!   And if that wasn’t enough, DeSoto Park offers a beautiful view overlooking McKay Bay.  Oh yeah – within the grounds, you’ll also find The Spicola Family Pool.

The pool has 2 water slides, sprinklers in a shallow play area for young children, a huge mushroom waterfall thing, and lap lanes for adults.  The pool is open Mon – Sun from 12 – 5:00pm and M-Thur from 6-7pm.  There is no charge for admittance but grownups must stay with the littest ones, and everyone has to fill out personal waiver.

And no one knows about this park. On that Sunday lunchtime picnic, the four of us shared the entire park with 3 moms, 3 kids, and 4 teens just chillin’. There were less than ten people at the pool. DeSoto Park is a hidden gem.

Zoom in on the google map to see the layout of the park. The satellite photo was taken before the pool and the skate park were built, but I can tell you the pool is just south of the baseball diamond on the bay, and the skatepark is directly north of that against Corrine St. There is a shelter with a picnic table at the south end of the pier.  The playground is hidden under the trees, and the baseball diamond is no longer there.