EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Miami Gardens, Florida
Distance - 346 miles
Time - 10 1/2 hours
I truly thought Miami was only about 3 hours from Key West - I'm not sure where I got that little tidbit of information, but it is tragically quite incorrect. Well, maybe it's only 3 hours each way at midnight with no construction?
The actual drive leaving on a week day at 8am took a little over 5 hours each way. Still, it was well worth it for the beautiful views and the fun adventures along the way! Anne had a great little guidebook (why didn't I think of getting one of those for my travels?) and pointed out a few cool places to go, including "Robert Is Here" fruit stand. Definitely not a place I would have found on my own, and I think if I lived nearby I would be there constantly, they had such a great selection of completely unfamiliar fruits like a black sapote (they said it is ripe when it's black and leaking juice, and tastes like "chocolate pudding") or a sapodilla (I think that was the "caramelized brown sugar pear" flavored one), as well as mangos, bananas, papayas, etc. It seems well known for it's fruit milkshakes and smoothies, and also sold jams, chutneys, about 20 flavors of honey, and various savory and sweet fruit and nut snacks. It was really neat!
Then I was on highway 1, driving over bridge after bridge, marveling at pelicans, seagulls, vultures, sandpipers, and egrets, constantly amazed at the sight of the ocean and tree roots that stretched directly into the water. Some islands were big enough that you forgot you were on an island, others were practically a sandbar that happened to have some trees and bushes on it; some had stores and hotels lining the highway, others were so narrow that the highway essentially *was* the island, with beach on either side.
I made it to Key West by 1pm and was tragically aware that the longer-than-expected drive meant less time to explore. So I took a little driving tour around town down the main streets (I saw Ernest Hemingway's house!), and stopped at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, right next to Fort Zachery Taylor State Park. It's a small center, but gives a good overview of the different ecosystems that you find in the Keys and talks about some of the ecological research that goes on both above ground and underwater. Plus it's free :) I took my time wandering through - I particularly enjoyed the little aquarium - and then it was time to be off back to Miami! Another beautiful drive, and a delightful evening talking with Anne and eating Cuban food topped off a fantastic day (despite spending most of it in the car).
The Robert Is Here fruit stand
Their website has a great list of the fruits they carry and what some of the more usual ones taste like
Ocean!
Heading down one of the many bridges. With one lane each way, I feel pretty lucky that there weren't any accidents!
There were a few places where the previous bridge was still along side of the new one, although they all had a section missing so you wouldn't want to use it by accident :p
Entrance to the Eco-Discovery Center
Fish!
He actually started coming over towards me when I got close to the glass - was he being friendly? Or trying to scare me away?
Lionfish have become a big problem as an invasive species, and I saw a couple of lionfish cookbooks while I was in Florida
One of the different habitats that the center explained were hammocks, slightly raised areas that support a surprising number of species for being relatively rare, particularly now that most of them have been developed into housing since they are really the only places that are above sea level even during most storms
The main habitat exhibit
The underwater research room
Back on the road!
Dunes?
One of the old bridges had a tree growing on it, and someone had gone out and put up a scaffolding with lights to make it look like it was lit up like a Christmas tree
It was a long drive...
Sometimes the water was very very close to the highway! I imagine that trying to evacuate during a storm is a very scary event
When I got back to Anne's, this very friendly cat was outside to greet me :)
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