MANATEE -- Sunday was a perfect Manatee County beach day and hundreds made a beeline toward parasailing, diving, swimming, boating, people-watching or collecting sun and shells at Anna Maria Island’s usual hot spots.
In fact, it was so perfect that by 2 p.m., westbound traffic on Manatee Avenue West stretched several miles from 75th Street to the island, leaving beachgoers in a snail’s crawl.
But a handful avoided the crush of people at the usual locales by sneaking into a beach-less but equally sunny and action-packed spot called Leffis Key Preserve.
Leffis is nestled in the southern tip of Anna Maria Island, across from Coquina Beach Park,. And it is so quiet even on busy beach days that it has earned the reputation as the safest place in Manatee County, said Officer Roy Joslin of the Bradenton Beach Police Department.
“I think the only law breaking ever is parking after sunset, which is when the key closes,” Joslin said. “I would have to say it definitely ranks at the top of the most crime-free spots in the county.”
Accessible by foot bridges and boardwalks, Leffis is actually a relatively small island that was once overgrown with non-native plants.
Several governmental agencies joined with public volunteers to turn the island into a preserve with plantings of dogwood, fig, southern red cedar, green buttonwood, sea grape and other plants.
“It’s quiet and nature-ey,” said Baltimore, Md., resident Dori Kovens, who was at Leffis Key Sunday along with her husband, Brian, and young sons, Landen and Griffin.
Leffis may not have the chic reputation of nearby Longboat Key and Lido Beach, but it has a special combination that nature lovers desire, including an abundant population of fish, birds, tidal lagoons, marsh grass, sea-oats and spectacular salt-water views, along with a sparse population of humans.
Tourists who do seek it out find they can nature-walk, boat, canoe, fish, kayak, snorkel, go birding, swimming or, as a member of the Koven clan proved, get smarter there by viewing interpretive displays.
“I learned the difference between red, black and white mangroves,” said 11-year-old Landen Kovens, who seems to have the curiosity of a born scientist. “The black ones have little spikes coming out, the red ones have big roots and the white ones are just regular.”
Griffin, 8, can deliver a robust report in show-and-tell in a few weeks about how the island was renewed, said his father, Brian, a toy and candy maker in Baltimore.
Nice, wide footpaths circle around the key, taking hikers and young scientists on a tour that goes through mangrove forests, which open up into viewing platforms where visitors can see surrounding bodies of water.
Leffis’ star attraction may be a 26-foot-tall hill in the center of the island.
“It’s a little peak where you get a 360-degree view of the Gulf of Mexico and Sarasota Bay,” said Lynette Torres, who enjoyed the peace and quiet of Leffis Sunday with Tim Boulris and their baby, Nevaeh.
A few years ago, New Jersey resident Jack Schack coined the name “stick-outs” for the half-dozen or so wooden platforms that “stick out” of the island, enabling people to get a waterfront view of the bay.
“I think Jack was thinking of those post cards which show tourists standing there pointing and going, ‘Hey, what’s that sticking out of the water,’” Jack’s wife, Betsy, said Sunday with a grin. “So, the phrase ‘stick-outs’ kind of stuck.”
As she was doing Sunday, Betsy Schack often gets her mid-morning exercise by briskly walking the footpaths that circle and crisscross the Leffis peak.
At the top, she paused and soaked in the 360-degree view.
“This is just one of the places I like to walk,” Betsy Schack said. “But it’s one of my favorites.”
Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 6686.
