Florida State Road 865

Originally a continuous Florida State Road extending from Bonita Springs to Tice, Florida and serving Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach, State Road 865 now consists of two segments connected by a part of Lee County Road 865 that was originally part of SR 865, one signed north–south, the other east–west.

Southern section

Locally known as San Carlos Boulevard, the 4.8-mile-long southern section of SR 865 provides the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area access to Estero Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The southern terminus is an intersection with Estero Boulevard (CR 865) in Fort Myers Beach, just east of Bodwitch Point Park; after crossing the Matanzas Pass Bridge and San Carlos Island, SR 865 forms the western boundary of Estero Bay Preserve State Park adjacent to Hurricane Bay.

San Carlos Boulevard then intersects with Summerlin Road (CR 869), which is a grade-separated Single-Point Urban Interchange, with Summerlin Road crossing above on an overpass. Summerlin Road is a highway that connects downtown Fort Myers with Sanibel Island via the Sanibel Causeway.

The southern section of SR 865 continues northward its northern terminus, an intersection with McGregor Boulevard, which is SR 867 to the northeast of the intersection, and CR 867 to the southwest, a more direct route connecting downtown Fort Myers to the popular Sanibel and Captiva islands. The northernmost 0.2 miles (0.32 km) of this section of SR 865 (in Iona) was added to the southern segment at about the time that Florida Department of Transportation removed the SR 865 signs from a section of Gladiolus Drive (see below).

Northern section

Extending 1.1 miles (1.8 km) in South Fort Myers, the northern section of SR 865 is locally known as Ben C. Pratt/Six Mile Cypress Parkway. The western terminus is an intersection with US 41; the eastern terminus is an intersection with Metro Parkway (SR 739); one mile (1.6 km) further to the east on Six Mile Cypress Parkway are the Lee County Sports Complex, which contains Hammond Stadium, the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins major league baseball team, and, across the street, the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve.

Historic State Road 865 and Lee County Road 865

Until the 1980s, State Road 865 signs were posted along a much longer highway. In the mid 1970s, FDOT designated three large sections of then-SR 865 as secondary routes, which started a process in which these designated sections would be transformed from State Road 865 into Lee County Road 865. This was part of a series of transformations that particularly affected southern Florida.

The historic southern terminus of SR 865 is an interchange between Interstate 75 (SR 93) and Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs. From there SR 865 followed Bonita Beach Road westward, through Bonita Springs and to Hickory Boulevard on Bonita Beach (Little Hickory Island), near the Gulf of Mexico shore. Motorists traveling north along then-SR 865 notice Hickory Boulevard change into Bonita Beach Causeway and then Estero Boulevard as they pass through the city of Bonita Springs, Long Key, Black Island, and the town of Fort Myers Beach before leaving northward from Estero Island on San Carlos Boulevard (current SR 865).

From San Carlos Boulevard, the former SR 865 continued 17 miles (27 km) eastward along Gladiolus Drive, then (first eastward, then northway) along Six Mile Cypress Parkway and north along Ortiz Avenue, to its historic northern terminus, an intersection with Palm Beach Boulevard (SR 80) in Tice. North of Fort Myers, the former SR 865 forms an alternative route toward Sanibel Island and Captiva Island by bypassing the downtown area.