Philippe Park

Philippe Park

Address: 2525 Philippe Pkwy.

Safety Harbor, FL 34695

Weather: 90 degrees, a little cloud coverage and really no breeze.

Philippe Park is the oldest park in Pinellas County, it looks out into the old Tampa bay. The land this park sits on was once owned by Odet Philippe in 1948 to grow citrus fruits.  This park has the last remaining evidence of Native Americans in Pinellas County, which is where the Tocobaga Indian hill is located, the area is high and cover looks almost the whole park.

While we were at the park, we would go in 15 minute intervals and see how many different types of plants and animals we could locate. This park has two main types of ecosystems, one is a hammock, and the other is shore line. While we were at the short line we had the opportunity to see a snake swimming in the water.  Philippe Park is a sand based park, which is different to the other parks we have visited so far.

Philippe Park has many different plants located in it, some include air potato which had taken over a large areas near the Native American Hill, cabbage palms, many oak trees, wild coffee, a whole section of just pine trees, and a lot of Spanish moss. Some animals we got to see where some different butterfly’s (Orange Barred), ants, the snake, squirrels, and someone said they saw a manatee but I didn’t get to see it.

I have been to Philippe Park many times to go fishing, but now have a new perspective for this park. Even though this park is maintained by people, we still got to experience some of what would be if it wasn’t maintained.