Beyond the resort on Marco Island: Exploring nature and Old Florida

People who pay a hefty price to stay in a hotel resort in Marco Island may be inclined to spend all their time taking advantage of the amenities there.

And at first glance, Marco Island seems so manicured, new and commercial that you might not think there is much to explore nearby.

But Marco Island is located in the middle of the Ten Thousand Islands, an area rich in nature where you can still find a slice of Old Florida.

Here are four ways to experience that other Florida beyond your hotel pool.

Wander a pristine barrier island at Tigertail Beach

The beaches are all great in Marco, but Tigertail Beach Park is an adventure for nature lovers.

Tigertail is a Collier County park and it’s also “new.” Fifteen years ago, it was an off-shore sandbar. The winds of Hurricane Wilma piled sand on the southern end, and today Sand Dollar Spit, as it is called, is connected to the mainland.

Tigertail Beach has a distinct split personality. You pay $8 to park and come to a clean and well-kept park with changing rooms, a first-rate snack bar that serves beer and wine, a great playground and a concession stand that rents kayaks, stand-up paddleboards and other beach gear. This developed part of the park faces onto a saltwater lagoon.

Tigertail Beach, a Marco Island adventure, where you wade to wild beach “

Cross the lagoon, however, and you leave development behind. It’s three miles of beach with soft white sand, scads of shells, dolphins swimming off-shore, ospreys squealing overhead and so many shore birds that it’s a stop on the Great Florida Birding Trail.

Crossing the lagoon is an adventure: People hold their belongings above them, looking like Oregon Trail pioneers fording the river. The lagoon is about 50 yards across and at high tide, the water comes up to waist or chest. The bottom of the lagoon is squishy, grassy mud. You don’t sink, but you do have to overcome the “yuck” factor if you’re not wearing water shoes.

Your reward, though, is a stunning vista of blinding white sand and clear blue-green water. Walk north and you can stroll, swim and beach-comb for two miles of wild beach beauty.

Watch for birds: Adjacent to the park is Big Marco Pass Critical Wildlife Area. The CWA is managed by the state and is a resting site for a variety of migratory shorebirds. Three species — black skimmers, snowy plovers and least terns — nest and raise their young in the protected area of Tigertail.

A few thoughts for the squeamish: If you consider this a “scary lagoon” and bring young children, consider giving them a ride across on a beach float or rent a kayak or paddleboard to explore and cross the lagoon.

Also, you CAN walk around the lagoon to the south to reach the beach. It looks like about 20 minutes if you park at the far south end of the parking lot, which is much larger than the small lot you see upon entering the park.

Tigertail Beach, 490 Hernando Drive Marco Island; 239-252-4000

Eat in the historic fishing town of Goodland

Twenty minutes from Marco Island, where the lawns are perfect and the hedges are neatly trimmed, you’ll find Goodland, a historic fishing town whose flavor is rustic – if you’re being kind.

Goodland got walloped in Hurricane Irma, and there are plenty of roof repairs still visible. (This is true for Marco Island, too.)

But the big draw in Goodland – a couple of waterfront seafood shacks with live music on weekends – were back in business for the winter season and continue to pack in visitors. (Several other Goodland restaurants failed to reopen after the storm.)

Goodland is essentially a small cluster of houses and trailers around a cove and marina lined with a few outdoor, very casual fish shacks. Many people come to Goodland as an outing by boat or motorcycle.

A live band plays on Saturdays and Sundays in a spot along the cove. The restaurants and music and general tiki-bar party atmosphere draws a huge crowd. Cars are parked all over, some two blocks away, and one restaurant has a worker directing traffic.

We dined at the Little Bar, which is the restaurant given the highest ratings in Goodland by users of both Yelp and TripAdvisor. It’s not cheap, but the food was excellent. We recommend everything we tried –the fresh blackened grouper sandwich ($19.50, though it is market priced), the crab cakes ($18.95) and the smoked fish dip ($6.95).

Little Bar has live music inside on weekends and offers indoor air conditioned dining, too, as well as many waterfront tables under umbrellas.

Nearby, Stan’s Idle Hour Restaurant had more moderate prices (fish sandwich $10; peel-and-eat shrimp basket $14) and was packed with people dancing and drinking around the stage and waterfront.

Visit Collier-Seminole State Park

Twenty minutes from Marco Island, this state park is known for its hiking and kayaking trails. It’s also home to the 1924 Bay City Walking Dredge, and how often do you get to visit a “National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark”?

The canoe and kayak trail on the Blackwater River is easy to explore: The park rents canoes by the hour, and plenty of never-before-paddlers were giving it a try the day we visited, paddling under a twisting, deep-green mangrove canopy.

There’s also a short nature trail in the park directly across from the boat dock, which is still closed because of Hurricane Irma damage. For a longer hike, try the park’s 6.5-mile trail through pine flatwoods and cypress swamp. (The trailhead is on the Tamiami Trail outside the park’s entrance.)

Collier Seminole State Park: Camping, kayak trails, lovable historic dredge “

My favorite thing: The huge monster-like walking dredge on display in the park, testimony to one of Old Florida’s great stories: How Baron Collier built the first road across the Everglades. Begun in 1915, the Tamiami Trail was completed in 1928, thanks in part to the Bay City Walking Dredge.

The sign at Bay City Walking Dredge #489 explains how Meece Ellis and Earl Ivey (can’t you just hear a banjo-accompanied folk song with those names?) operated this machine six days a week in sweltering, mosquito-infested Florida heat, digging the Tamiami Trail. (Never mind that the road was a very bad idea for the plumbing of the river of grass; Meece and Earl couldn’t know that.) The dredge is the last of its kind in existence.

Warning: Bring mosquito repellent. This park can be a buggy place in the rainy season.

Admission to the park is $5 per car.

Collier-Seminole State Park, 20200 E. Tamiami Trail, Naples; 239-394-3397

Take a walk on Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

Just beyond Collier-Seminole State park, about 30 minutes from Marco Island, you’ll find one of the prettiest boardwalks in the Everglades.

It’s a 2,000-foot-long boardwalk through old growth cypress swampland and it is a truly stunning place. It’s worth taking the time to take a stroll here — and it’s free.

The boardwalk is part of Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, the orchid and bromeliad capital of the continent with 44 native orchids and 14 native bromeliad species. It’s where the ghost orchid, topic of a book by Susan Orleans and a movie starring Meryl Streep, lives, along with the equally elusive Florida panther and Florida black bear.

Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, 27020 Tamiami Trail East, Naples; 239-695-4593

Florida Rambler gives tips on visiting the natural and authentic Florida at www.FloridaRambler.com

Tamiami Trail: Scenic drive through the Everglades “

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FloridaRambler.com gives tips on getaways to the natural and authentic Florida.