Midnight Pass Is About to Turn Two. Here's How Siesta Key Gets There Now.

Sarasota County keeps a survey sheet for one cross-section of Midnight Pass, and it has been updated almost every week since October 2024. The first reading came on October 29, 2024, just days after Hurricane Milton cut the inlet open. It showed 844 square feet of open water and a low point 13.8 feet below the survey baseline. By January 21, 2025, the area had dropped to 629 square feet. On September 28, 2026, it read 1,261 square feet, with the low point at 15.9 feet.

The pass had been closed since 1983. Milton reopened it near its original location, and this month marks two years. The pass has held up, and the county is now planning to manage it as a permanent waterway. The same storm also changed how you get there. The beach route to the southern tip of Siesta Key is closed, so Midnight Pass is now a place you reach by boat or paddle.

Why This Pass Held and Milton Pass Didn't

Milton opened two new inlets within hours of each other, less than 30 miles apart. They have behaved very differently. Milton Pass in Charlotte County started out about 100 yards wide and 8 to 10 feet deep. According to the University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions, it has largely filled back in.

At a September county commission meeting, Mike Jenkins, a senior principal engineer with the county's consultant Geosyntec, called Midnight Pass "dynamically stable." For months it has held a depth of around 16 feet and a cross-sectional area of around 1,400 square feet. Its centerline still shifts within a 60-foot-wide band. At peak tide, enough water moves through the pass to fill an Olympic-sized pool in about 26 seconds.

Jenkins says the sand is a big reason it has held. The pass is lined with coarse "shell hash," which is very different from the beach sand farther north, and it can hold a steeper slope. "It encourages inlet stability," he told commissioners.

The weekly readings move around, but over nearly two years the trend is up:

All of these numbers come from a single surveyed cross-section. They show how the inlet is changing over time. They don't promise any particular depth for a boat crossing it on a given afternoon. The September 28 reading is lower than the July peak, and the sheet shows readings like that going up and down all summer.

The Commission Vote That Makes It Permanent

After the stability report, Sarasota County commissioners voted unanimously on September 22 to move ahead with five steps for the next phase:

1. Keep collecting data.
2. Add channel markers and advisory signs.
3. Study whether nearby channels need dredging to keep navigation safe.
4. Start state and federal permitting to maintain and manage the pass.
5. Keep working with stakeholders.

Permitting is the big change. It starts a years-long process to manage Midnight Pass the way local governments already manage Longboat Pass, Big Pass and New Pass. The planned signs would warn boaters about manatees and paddlers, which reflects how mixed the traffic in the pass already is. Possible small dredging projects would focus on the two branches that connect the pass to Little Sarasota Bay.

All of this is still planned. The September report describes markers and signs that "could soon appear," so the pass doesn't have them yet. The money for watching it was already set aside. In November 2025, the county approved $500,000 for another 12 months of monitoring, including work on an emergency plan in case the pass looked likely to close on its own.

Commissioner Teresa Mast summed up the board's view at the meeting:

"I don't want to see it closed again for decades, it was a fight. Thank the good Lord up above the only positive thing to come out of the storms was that it did open this up for us."

Getting There Means Getting on the Water

The storm that opened the pass also took away the old way to walk to it. Sarasota County lists Palmer Point Beach Park at 9399 Blind Pass Road as a watercraft-access-only park with no parking. The county says pedestrian access is "unavailable due to significant erosion of Turtle Beach during Hurricane Milton." The park is open from 6 a.m. to sunset and lists birding, fishing, a canoe and kayak launch, and an unpaved trail among its features.

So most trips start at Turtle Beach Park, 8918 Midnight Pass Road. It has both motorized and non-motorized boat ramps, a canoe and kayak launch, an accessible launch and a wash station. It's open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

If you don't own a kayak or boat, Sarasota County's list of approved park vendors describes Turtle Beach as the starting point for trips toward the secluded Midnight Pass beach. Three outfitters are permitted to operate there: Great Blue Outfitters, SURFit USA and TC Watersports. SURFit USA offers a two-hour kayak or paddleboard trip from Turtle Beach through the mangroves of the Jim Neville Marine Preserve to Midnight Pass Beach. The outfitter says weekday trips are quieter than weekends. It also says paddlers may see manatees, dolphins and seabirds, and sometimes sea turtles. Pets aren't allowed on its tours.

Who Else Is Out There

The pass has drawn crowds since its first weeks. Your Observer reported that a boat parade on October 26, 2024, drew what looked like hundreds of vessels. Boats ran through the new opening and stopped at the beaches and a new sandbar. That was one day, though. Nearly two years on, the paper describes the pass as a near-overnight visitor hotspot and a shortcut to the Gulf for many boaters.

That mix of boats, kayaks and manatees is why the planned signs focus on wildlife and paddlers. Until the markers go in, nothing official marks a channel through the pass, and the channel itself moves within that 60-foot band. County park rules prohibit removing or disturbing natural materials, plants or animals. Dogs are allowed only in designated parks and areas.

What Could Still Close It

Jenkins was clear that being stable isn't the same as being permanent. There were no real tropical threats in 2025, and none so far in 2026, so the pass hasn't faced a serious storm since it opened. "Keep in mind," he said, "it opened during a storm, storms open inlets, but they certainly can close it."

The other risk comes from the north. Because sand naturally moves along the coast, the pass falls within the reach of the Turtle Beach renourishment project just north of it. Future sand placement will have to be timed with the inlet in mind. "We don't want to have a condition where we place sand on the beach and we have an inlet closure," Jenkins said.

The county has a plan if that happens. Under an emergency order, land-based equipment would likely come in from the north and remove about 25,000 cubic yards of sediment. The recent New Pass dredge between Lido and Longboat keys moved more than ten times that much. By comparison, reopening Midnight Pass would be a small job, and the county is getting ready for it in advance.

For now, the county's latest survey of Midnight Pass is dated September 28, 2026, and it shows the pass still open. Weekly results are posted on the county's Midnight Pass project page, where you can check conditions before launching from Turtle Beach.

If owning a home on the south end of Siesta Key means getting out on Little Sarasota Bay more often, our team can talk through what water access looks like on different streets and docks around the pass. Dianne Anderson knows this part of the key well. Let's connect.