February 16 thru 18 - John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo Florida
It took me two weeks of getting up at 6:30 every morning back in March of last year to get reservations at this campground. One is able to reserve sites 11 months ahead of time in the Florida State parks and one should never come down here in the winter without reservations. Nothing is available. I finally lucked out and hit the key at just the right time to get this reservation. I had picked the site at the end of a row so that our camper opened out into a wooded area and not out to another camper. It is probably the best site in the park and we are pleased with it.
Campsite 22 at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
More photos of the state park
One of the hiking trails
We've been in the Keys for three days now and really enjoy this state park. This park has a couple of beaches and a couple of trails that we have explored. We have gone to three ranger talks over the past days. One was on trees of the area. There is a tree here called the poison wood tree and the rangers claim that it is worse than poison ivy if you touch it. The sap is a substance that most people are allergic to, and apparently it is pretty bad. They say don't even walk under them when it is raining. It started raining on that hike and we had to cancel it to avoid the poison wood drippings. Yesterday was a talk on the Marine Sanctuary that encompasses all of the keys and the Everglades area. It is managed by NOAA and the purpose is to protect the reef and habitat that is the keys. There is a reef that sits about 5 or 6 miles off the Atlantic side of the keys and it is important to so many sea creatures as well as helping to maintain the keys themselves by protecting them from high ocean waves and storms. They are also a big economic (tourist) draw for the keys due to so many people wanting to snorkle, dive and see them. We went on a boat tour out to the reef yesterday ourselves and got to view the reef through the glass bottom of the boat. We went on a great hike and talk today. The volunteer ranger that lead it really knew her stuff. We saw a number of trees and plants that she provided information on and several butterflys as well.
On the glass bottom boat. A little windy.
Photos of the reef through the bottom of the boat.
The glass bottom
The boat.
Dagger wing butterfly and flowers on today's hike
The Keys form a chain of islands at the south tip of Florida and Highway 1 runs right down through them to Key West the most southern point in the continental US. It is difficult to see the water as you drive down Highway 1 because of all the businesses and heavy growth along both sides of the highway. Here in Key Largo there is a pretty good growth of Mangroves which protect the shore line. Back in the 50s and 60s most of the mangrove trees were removed because of development and people wanted access to the water. Little did they know that it was the mangrove barrier that protected the land from the hurricanes. It only took a couple of hurricanes for them to realize the importance of the mangroves and today it is illegal to remove any, even on your own property without a permit.
Note the mangroves as we leave the harbor at John Pennekamp SP
Photos of the mangrove swamp
Mangrove roots.
A fish market near mile marker 98
Key Lime pie at Hobos Restaurant near mile marker 97
We have driven down to about mile marker 85 so far. We found a wild bird rehabilitation center that we toured and were impressed with.
Photos from around the bird rehabilitation center. Although all the birds featured are not injured birds they just congregate nearby because of the food provided the birds in the shelter. I guess the food draws these other birds.
This afternoon we were sitting under the camper awning and there were a flock of White Ibis right behind the camper. As we were watching them we saw a large green lizard kind of stalking them. They seemed to give him plenty of space. We took photos of the lizard and when I took the camera to the visitor center to find out what it was, it turned out to be a Green Igana. It is an invasive species. There are a number of invasive speicies of both plants and animals here. Most of the animals were originally pets that out grew their owners ability to take care of, so they released them into the wild instead of killing them like they shoulf have. Since these animals have no predator to keep them at bay here in this area, they thrive and eat the same things as native species eat. Thus depriving the native species of food. Since they have no predators they also over populate. The most significant invasive species in the Everglades and south Florida is the Boa Constrictor. The number of those is now estimated to be in the thousands.
Immature and mature White Ibis. The mature one is all white.
Green Igana
