Craft Access
✓
Motorboat ✓
Kayak / Canoe ✗
Jet Ski / PWC ✓
Large 22ft+ Site Details
Conditions change rapidly due to water levels, prop wash, and weather. Always visually inspect before backing down.
RampConcrete, 6 lanes
DockFloating launch docks (FWC inventory).
Trailer Parking80 spots · mix of paved and unpaved, rated in good condition (fwc inventory).
Vehicle-Only9 spots
Crowding Six lanes — the most of any ramp on the lake — with 80 trailer spaces and 9 vehicle-only spaces on the FWC inventory. Ramp capacity is not the problem. What fills the lot is the park: 255 acres with picnic shelters, playgrounds, a dog park and a canoe trail, all running hardest on weekend mornings, which is also when the 7 a.m. gate opening queues every boater at once.
Plan B — if this lot is full A.L. Anderson Park Boat Ramp at the north end off US 19 — four lanes, 87 trailer spaces by FWC's count, and it opens at 5 a.m. if you want to be on the water before this ramp's gate lifts. Same $6 fee and same annual pass. It is about five miles up the lake.
Fee$6 per day per vehicle, trailer or not. Cashless card-only pay station. Annual Boat & Beach Pass $117.70 incl. tax
HoursBoat ramp 7 a.m. to dusk. The park is open 7 days a week, 7 a.m. to sunset.
SeasonYear-round. The park closes the day after Thanksgiving and on December 25.
PierYes
AccessibilityFWC rates the site "Moderate Level of Accessibility" and lists 3 accessible trailer spaces, 1 accessible vehicle space, and an accessible flush restroom. Disabled-permit holders park free with valid documentation displayed.
Not Available Fish cleaning
Scout's Notes
Ramp Quirks & Etiquette
FWC has the fee wrong
The FWC row says FeeAmount 5.0 per day. The current rate is $6 per day for a vehicle with or without a trailer, at a cashless card-only pay station — per Pinellas County's own boat-ramp parking page, the managing agency.
FWC has the hours wrong
The FWC row says Hours 6:00 AM to 6:30 PM. Pinellas County says "John Chesnut Sr. Park: Open 7 a.m. to Dusk" — an hour later in the morning and, in summer, later at night. The county governs.
Combustion engines are explicitly fine on the lake
Pinellas County's park page states it outright: "Lake Tarpon can accommodate boats with combustion engines" — a positive managing-agency statement, not an absence of a rule. The park's canoe-trail restriction to non-combustion engines governs the in-park paddling trail, not the Lake Tarpon launch. Don't conflate the two.
Lane and trailer counts are FWC's, not the county's
Six lanes (2 single, 2 double) and 80 trailer spaces are FWC inventory figures; Pinellas County publishes neither. The county's July 2006 boat-ramp inventory independently gives 6 lanes here — but 94 trailer spaces, not 80. The lane count is corroborated across two sources; the trailer count is not settled.
FWC's amenity list is badly short
The FWC row carries only "Grill,Picnic." The county page adds a dog park, two playgrounds, horseshoe pits, a softball field, water fountains, observation boardwalks, a fishing pier and a canoe trail, on a 255-acre park. Also: FWC's address reads "2200 EAST LAKE RD"; the county's form is 2200 East Lake Road South, Palm Harbor, FL 34685.
Where it sits
28.08629, -82.70161 — the southeast shore, off East Lake Road, roughly five miles down the lake from Anderson at the north end. That distance matters on a windy day: this is a shallow lake with five miles of north-south fetch.
What you'll pay
$6 per day per vehicle, with or without a trailer, at a cashless pay station — Visa, MasterCard and American Express only, tag number required. Annual Boat & Beach Pass $117.70 incl. tax, $58.85 for seniors 65+, free for qualifying disabled U.S. veterans; it covers all county park ramps. FWC's $5 parking-meter record is out of date twice over.
FWC Florida Boat Ramp Inventory row PI101016AJ; Pinellas County Parks & Conservation Resources John Chesnut Sr. Park page and Boat Ramp Parking page (both fetched 2026-07-31); Pinellas County Appendix C boat ramp inventory, July 2006.
About This Lake
Lake Tarpon →