On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Neither of us had been here before so this was our first “new” National Park visit since Saguaro in Arizona last spring. Biscayne is a unique National Park, because 95% of its area is underwater and its purpose is to preserve and showcase the reefs and other underwater habitat. However, visiting it is a bit of a challenge for people who don’t particularly like getting wet.
For visitors without a boat, the Biscayne National Park Institute runs several different tours to various places in the park for snorkeling, paddling, and visiting the keys. We took the heritage tour that described the history of the park. We learned about pirates, shipwrecks, the son of a slave who sold his three islands to the government for preservation instead of to developers, and the parties thrown by the founder of Honeywell on his private island, Boca Chita Key.
This was the entrance sign. I liked the carved brick.
Trail to Convoy Point. This was a trail made up partly of a boardwalk, and partly of a jetty near the Visitor Center. This was part of the 5% of the park above sea level.
We had a naturalist/first mate and pilot running the boat. This is typical for most of the boat tours we’ve taken in Florida state parks too.
Mangrove shoreline, typical of all the keys in the park.
The ornamental lighthouse was built by Honeywell for aesthetics. The Coast Guard forced him to turn it off since it had nothing to do with navigation hazards.
Beach on the Gulf side.
In the early days, Honeywell’s visitors would come to Boca Chita in their yachts for his parties and live aboard in this same anchorage while they stayed. There were no acommodations, including fresh water. Times haven’t changed much, except now the boats are plastic and uglier (yes, I’m a wooden boat aficionado)
View of Miami, with pelicans.
raven
Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day. . .
raven
They’s reds and snook in there!
Steve in the ATL
Beautiful place. At least in pictures, where I don’t feel heat and humidity!
Laura Too
I love the skyline pic, and pelicans! Thanks!
J_A
For those visiting South Florida, or living there, I cannot recommend enough visiting Everglades City (City in the same way my bathtub is like Lake Michigan :-) ).
it is a great day trip from Miami or Naples on Route 41, where you can see dolphins catching an unsuspecting fish while sitting in front of a convenience store, or alligators laying in the afternoon sun on the warm tarmac. When I lived in Miami it was my go-to place to take visitors, or for a Saturday afternoon excursion.
Everglades City is the main entrance to the Southern part of the Everglades National Park, where the River of Grass flows into the Gulf, and there are regular boat tours conducted by the Rangers to bring you up close to a magnificent place.
a small weekend carnival fair for the little ones, and some decent restaurants for the grown ups complete the excursion. So totally worth it, and, surprisingly, not very well known by the masses.
Mustang Bobby
@J_A: I’m in Palmetto Bay, which used to be unincorporated Dade County when I went to college in the early ’70’s and was mostly mango farms. It still is in some parts. I am a five-minute walk to the Deering Estate on Cutler Bay. There is still enough of the original woods and trees that I have heard Barred Owls hooting in the night and seen coyotes trotting down the streets (on the hunt for the invading peacocks). And when the land crabs decide to migrate inland, they’re hard to dodge.
I love being so close to both parks and visit as often as I can, which isn’t often enough.
Raven
@J_A: I took a fishing charter to 10,000 Islands from there, primo!
Wayne
@Mustang Bobby: Good morning. Nice to see you in the comments. We moved to Ocala almost 2 years ago so if you need to bug out because of a big one just let me know if you need refuge.
I grew up on Biscayne Bay, and Boca Chita and Elliot Key to the south are old water stomping grounds. For you fishermen the area from Boca Chita north towards downtown and Cape Florida is famous for bone fishing.
One memory; President Nixon had a house on Key Biscayne and we were water skiing a tad too close one day and got a visit from the Secret Service.
Mustang Bobby
@Wayne: Thanks! I like the Ocala area with the deciduous trees and hills. I was there a few years ago for a national antique car show on the college campus.
I remember visiting Key Biscayne in the early ’70’s when Nixon was in office and seeing the guardhouse at the entrance to his street. Both his house and Bebe Rebozo’s have been demolished. Karma.
JanieM
These are beautiful and enticing, and the history snippets are fun too. The fake lighthouse story made me chuckle. I like the Adams Key shot — the greens and blues… And the Miami skyline. Obviously I haven’t seen enough of, or the right parts of, Florida.
CaseyL
That last photo is particularly lovely, looks so serene.
joel hanes
I’m a wooden boat aficionado
as are all right-thinking persons.
J R in WV
The haze from the South Florida heat makes Miami look like Oz in the distance. With pelicans instead of gold bricks. Nice photo set, thanks frostie.
Mustang Bobbie, good to see you around these parts. Hope all is well with you and your old car, and the theater work. Best wishes.