Caspersen Beach, Florida

Caspersen Beach is the most natural and undeveloped beach of all Venice's beaches. It's located at the southern end of Harbor drive, about a mile south of Venice fishing pier. The parking's free, and is connected to the beach by a pleasant boardwalk, which meanders through native foliage.

The beach itself is very beautiful, and stretches for more than a mile and a half of soft sand. It's a great place for a swim - the beach is a designated Blue Wave beach, but many folk forget the swimming, and concentrate on searching for fossilized shark teeth. These fossils come from huge 50 foot sharks, which cruised the waters here a couple of geological eras ago. Caspersen beach is a good place to find these fossils, because it hasn't been replenished and covered with sand from other areas, unlike many of the beaches along this stretch of shoreline.

In early summer, May thru to July, watch out for Turtles' nests - these are often marked out with stakes so you can give them a wide berth. If you're there in the morning, see if you can spot the tell-tale turtle 'tramlines' which run up the beach from the seawater's edge.

There's also a beautiful little nature trail which wanders through the dunes, and sea-oats, finally connecting to the Venetian Waterway Trail.