Highway 41 Streetview trek - the Tampa Bay turn

So where we are now on the Highway 41 trek is north of Bradenton.  Highway 41 does not cross Tampa Bay -- Interstate 275 does that, over the Sunshine Skyway II bridge -- while Interstate 75 parallels what Highway 41 is about to do.  The highway is going to go to the east of Tampa Bay, and is much closer to the water than the interstate.

First thing to do north of Bradenton is to cross the Manatee River into Palmetto.


There are a lot of side trips that would be possible, more interesting Floridian sights, but it's time to get moving north.  So we're skipping the DeSoto Memorial, Anna Maria Island, an Terra Ceia Bay, Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve and Terra Ceia Preserve State Park, those last being some nice natural areas contrasted with the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa.  We're zipping through the little locale of Rubonia (but you can visit that link if you want).    We'll also go by the Tampa Bay Ecosystem Rock Ponds and retirement haven Sun City.   And we go by the unfortunately named Cockroach Bay, and important baylet for larval fish and a remarkably wild mangrove "forest" in this region. Cockroach Bay is also an Outstanding Florida Water and Aquatic Preserve.

Our next point-of-interest is the crossing of the Little Manatee River, not to be confused with the crossing of the Manatee River, which we did earlier.   The Little Manatee is also an Outstanding Florida Water.



But for the end of this leg, I will take a very short side trip to E.G. Simmons Region Park, which is on the shores of Tampa Bay too.  The thing about this park is that it's one of the few places you can drive to the Tampa Bay coastline.


Next -- up to Tampa.