We left Vitambi Springs, Clewiston, FL in the morning to start our travel further south. Checked the air pressure in the tires and used the compressor to top everything off before we left. On the way we stopped for groceries and needed supplies.
Once we arrived in Key West, we met Gayle Cox. She met us near the Stock Island Marina, we parked on the access road to the marina. We went over to Permanently Temporary to see Don.
We spent 8 days touring Key West by bike after Keith finished work. We were able to acquire tickets for Dry Tortugas National Park for a Sunday 7Feb, only available time they had since Friday and Saturday were sold out. We spent the rest of our day at Fort Zachary Taylor biking and hiking, stopped at Higgs Beach, Smathers Beach for a total of 18.26 miles.
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| View from Stock Island Marina |
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| Brown Pleican at Stock Island Marina |
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| Sunrise at the marina |
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| Sunrise off Cow Key, Stock Island |
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| View back towards Southern Point from the Aids Memorial Pier |
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| Higgs Beach with the Pier |
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| African Cemetery at Higgs Beach site has the remains of 294 Africans, mostly children who died in Key West in 1860. One thousand, four hundred and thrity-two (1,432) Aficans from three American-owned ships engaged in illegal slave trade bringing freed Africans bound for Cuba. |
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The Little White House
Built in 1890 as quarters for Naval Officers and later used by President William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as a vaction home and functioning White House between 1946 and 1952. Many historical events have taken place here including the Civil Rights Executive Order requiring federal contractors to hire minorities. |
We love to tour different places to see the way people life, immersing ourselves in the history and explore the obscure hidden gems that locals know. Taking the bikes out allowed us to explore more and see more of Key West at a slower pace.
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Fort Zachary Taylor
Constructed in 1845 as part f the Third Tier System of Defense which called for the establisment of masony fortresses constructed along America's coastline to prevent sea attackes on the United States. The Fort played a key role in its location to protect the waters of the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico being three stories tall, holding 140 cannon and 450 soldiers. The fort remanined under the Union control during the Civil War and headquartes for the U.S. Nacy East Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron. Fort Taylor was in service during the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II decommissioned in 1947 now litsed as a National Historical Landmark ad reigstered National Historic Places. |
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| Fort Zachary Taylor, two tiers were removed from the fortress |
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| View from bike path of the fort |
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| Life in Key West, don't harass the chickens |
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| Key West Lighthouse |
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| Southern Most Point, cropped out the tourists since we could not get close |
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| Marker for beach we are walking towards |
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| Boca Chica Beach near the Naval Air Station |
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We walked to the beach on Boca Chica, found this drift would fortress, Keith found this swing
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| Old road to the beach area that was washed out |
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| Naval Air was performing training |
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| Tons of bird life here |
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| Sunset Boca Chica |
We took the 2.5 hour ferry ride out to Dry Tortugas National Park. Dry Tortugas National Park is in the Gulf of Mexico, west of Key West, Florida. It comprises 7 islands, plus protected coral reefs. Garden Key is home to beaches and the 19th-century Fort Jefferson. Loggerhead Key has a lighthouse and sea turtles. On nearby Loggerhead Reef, the Windjammer Wreck, the remains of an 1875 ship, is a popular dive site. Bush Key is a nesting site for seabirds like sooty terns. The experience of walking around the fortress was fun, educational and of interest to us.
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| Our view of Fort Jefferson from the Yankee III ferry |
Fort Jefferson sits on Garden Key, 70 miles from Key West, one of the seven keys in Dry Tortugas National Park.
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| Daily sea planes arrive from Key West |
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| The entrance to Fort Jefferson |
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| Keith and I at Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park |
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| the view from the second tier of the fort to the entrance and anchorage |
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| Fort Jefferson parade grounds and interior of the fort. |
The Islands were first discovered by Spanish explorer Ponce De Leon in 1513. They were first named Las Tortugas, the Turtles, due to the abundance of sea turtles. The word "dry" was soon added to mariners' charts to warn of the lack of fresh water.
Fort Jefferson, the largest all-masonry fort in the United States, was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the nation's gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. Supply and subsidence problems and the Civil War delayed construction. The fort was never completed because of fears that additional bricks and cannon would cause further settling and place more stress on the structure and the cistern system. Distinguishing features include decorative brickwork and 2,000 arches. Time, weather, and water continue to take their toll, necessitating ongoing stabilization and restoration projects.
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| overview of Fort Jefferson, some brick was made in Maine |
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| Beach side of the fort, snorkeling can be done here |
Our last full day in Key West, 8Feb we went back to Boac Chica Key to the beach while Keith worked with the HotSpot. We had perfect weather with warm air and warm water to swim.
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| Parked on Geiger Key with access to Boca Chica Key |
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| Our walk to the beach |
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| view from the beach |
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| our view of the beach |
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| Sunset on Boca Chica Key |
We made our way north stopping along the way while still on the Keys. We stopped on Big Pine Key to see Key Deer. We stopped at Blue Hole and Jack Watson Nature Trail, spoke with a charming British woman from Ashton, NH (formerly Nottingham, England). She and her husband volunteer to park service for the National Key Deer Refuge, she was taking care of the garden near Blue Hole ( a former quarry) and pointed out a male Key Deer buck. We hiked .88 miles on John Watson Nature Trail.
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| Unregulated hunting had brought the population of Key deer to an all-time low in the late 1940s—about 50 animals. Public interest in the small deer had been pumped up by J.N. "Ding" Darling’s political cartoons as well as a letter to President Harry Truman from an 11-year-old boy concerned about the Key deer. |
John C. Watson took on the order to protect the population fo Key deer, named U.S. game agent, and his territory covered more than a million acres from the Marquesas Keys north and east, including the Everglades. In 1954, three years before National Key Deer Refuge was formally established, he was named its first refuge manager, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1975. The population had grown to 300 Key deer.
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| Key deer doe on No Name Key |
We are having the adventure of a life time on the Keys, next stop Bahia Honda State Park. We spent a few hours here walking around the park enjoying the weather and views. We ended up hiking 1.05 miles.
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| Henry Flagler’s bold effort to build a railroad to Key West in the early 1900s turned the remote island of Bahia Honda Key into a tropical destination. |
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| Manatee in the marina |
We arrive in Curry Hammock State Park, Marathon, FL to spend time with Lin and Vonnie. We were given site 27 for two nights and volunteered working to clean the beach and mangrove the second day. We thoroughly enjoyed borrowing the kayaks circumnavigating the island while pulling trash, including a construction barrel. We kayaked for 3.00 miles around the park.
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| Sunrise at Curry Hammock beach area |
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| cleaning crew ready for Mangrove duty |
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| Barnacles |
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| towing the construction barrel to the beach |
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| Pelican high in a tree over the mangrove |
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| Captured photo from the kayak |
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Kayaking through the mangrove to circumnavigate
the island |
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| made it out of the mangrove |
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Kite surfing off the beach in Curry Hammock
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We had a great time here seeing Vonnie and Lin, and we got a surprise from Glaedr while we were here too. Barry and J came into Curry Hammock via catamaran.
We continued our adventure heading up the keys and stopped at another Florida State Park, Long Key. In the early 20th century, Henry Flagler’s Long Key Fishing Camp was a popular luxury destination along his railroad to Key West. On Labor Day in 1935 a hurricane hit Long Key destroying the facilities built by Flagler.
We stopped in check out the park, two really nice birding and nature trails wind through the park. The park did sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017, they are still making repairs and Mother Nature is doing her thing to bring back the flora.
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Fiddler crab camouflaged by the dead leaves
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| We hiked the Golden Orb Trail for 1.25 miles in under an hour. |
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| Hiking through a variety of ecosystems |
We stopped at one more Florida State Park before we had long, some friends from Vitambi Springs had recommended a restaurant on Key Largo The Fish House. We stopped and took a small hike at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
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| Hiked a .54 miles in 19 minutes |
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| It had gotten warmer, we were thankful for the shade |
Next stop is lunch, we are starving after all the hiking, as the day has now gotten ahead of us.
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| Outdoor seating and hardly anyone there late lunch |
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| We had a corner seat looking over the exterior seating |
For lunch we had the Lobster Bisque Soup, Lobster Ruebens and finished off with Key Lime Pie. Too much food but so worth every last bite. The recommendation did not disappoint, we will return but next time split the rueben.
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| Lobster Bisque |
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| Lobster Rueben with red potato salad |
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| Key Lime Pie, decadent |
After a heavy lunch, we drove up Key Largo then stopped at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park off CR905. Once slated to become a condominium development, the park contains the largest contiguous tract of West Indian tropical hardwood hammock—over 2400 acres—anywhere in the United States. Dagny Johnson was an activist to protect the hammock which became a State Park in 1982 protecting 84 species of tree and wildlife. The park was created not only to preserve this unique forest, but also to protect the spectacular coral reefs in nearby John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which are sensitive to turbidity and pollutants from land development.
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You can see where the development would have taken place with quarries, rock walls and roadways established in the park. Nature is taking back what man started to take. We hiked 1.66 miles.
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| Waterways dot the park |
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| Swallow tail butterfly |
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| Looks like a former quarry to us, now a pond |
We have reservations in Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park for 12Feb. We continue our way up Key Largo on CR905 to CR905A before we crossed over to mainland Florida. We tried to get to the tip of Key Largo but the last 1/4 of the key isa gated private country club and housing.
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| 367 Miles in total from Clewiston to Key West and back to Florida mainland |
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