Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
phobic, capillary-esque mangrove tunnels courtesy of Hell's Bay - which, by the way, is
one of the most beautiful parts of the park. Don't pass it up.
If you want a true ultimate adventure, consider boating the 99-mile long wilderness wa-
terway along and amid the margins of the 10,000 Islands.
The Keys
Paddling is popular in the Keys, where the water is more teal than the sky and the sun is
almost always bright overhead. On Islamorada, Anne's Beach offers offshore paddling
near clumps of mangrove forest, while at
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
you can
boat over the continent's largest coral-reef formations.
Still, the ultimate in Keys kayaking and canoeing is Indian Key Historic State Park and
Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park. Both sites are only boat accessible. They're not too
difficult to paddle out to, but this added layer of inaccessibility, plus the combination of
wilderness and the rotted ruins on Indian Key makes a trip out here pretty magical.
Diving & Snorkeling
South Florida has, hands down, the best reef and wreck diving in the continental USA, and
the snorkeling is just as magical. At times, the clarity of the water is disconcerting, as if
you were floating on air; every creature and rainbow school of fish all the way to the bot-
tom feels just out of reach, so that, as William Bartram once wrote, 'the trout swims by the
very nose of the alligator and laughs in his face'. North America's largest coral-reef sys-
tem is at your fingertips and wreck diving in Florida is equally epic.
How epic?
Biscayne National Park
has developed a wreck-centric maritime trail. Other
attractions include Dry Tortugas National Park, which was named for its abundant sea
turtles, the fantastic
Florida Keys History of Diving Museum
in Islamorada, which is
pretty awesome whether you dive or not, and of course,
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State
Park
, which offers the best diving in the lower 48 states. Barring Biscayne, all the afore-
mentioned sites can be found in the Keys.
