We love snorkeling at Phil Foster Memorial Park! Over winter 2023 we snorkeled thirteen times at Phil Foster and saw so much sea life. We only snorkeled on days where the high tide was from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and when the wind was not too strong. We found these were the best times for us for clarity and to fit our schedule. idiveflorida.com has a great Blue Heron Bridge Tide Schedule, where Phil Foster is located. It even highlights dark green for the best diving times. There are many divers and snorkelers at Phil Foster; the park can become very busy.
We usually enter the water an hour before high tide and snorkel for about two hours. We have discovered that we like to go in near the lifeguard station under the bridge. The best trail for us is to head out to the end of the swimming area and make a left towards the pillars. That is where we see the most sea turtles and eagle rays. Sometimes we go all the way to the pillars with our Diver Below floatie. This is simply for safety reasons as we don’t get ran over by a boat. It makes us more comfortable to travel to the pillars with the floatie. After checking out the pillars, we make our way up to the shark statues in the other direction, following the manmade reefs. This leads us past the lifeguard station and closer to the bridge where we started. This is the area we usually see moray eels. Phil Foster is an amazing place to visit. We see something different every time we snorkel there. You can see a current map of the Phil Foster Snorkel Trail to plan your visit.
