Elliot Key

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If you haven’t seen the Ken Burns series on the National Parks, I highly recommend it. All of the stories of how the parks came to be preserved are wonderful, but I particularly remembered the story about Biscayne National Park. Biscayne Bay lies just south of Miami and just north of Key Largo. The mangrove shoreline and swamp seemed worthless up until 1960 when there was some interest in putting a causeway across the bay from Miami to Elliot Key and finally connecting it to Key Largo at the head of the Florida Keys.

A female reporter at the Miami Herald led a David vs. Goliath fight to protect the bay and stop the causeway. Developers were salivating to get to Elliot Key, but they finally failed in 1968 when the area was designated as a national monument. In 1980 it was expanded and given national park status. However, the developers bulldozed a swath of land straight down the middle, the entire length of Elliot Key, before they were removed by government order. Today much of that swath has grown over, and only a 4-wheeler trail is maintained by the park service. They call it “spite road.”

Elliot Key was one of my destinations on this trip. I was pretty ambitious thinking I would pack up my backpack and get dropped off by boat for a couple of days. Instead I decided to just do a day trip and check things out. The only boat going out to Elliot Key was a glass-bottom site-seeing boat that took you out to the coral reefs on the far side. Well, I love coral reefs, and clear aquamarine water, and even though snorkeling is my preference, a glass-bottom boat ride over them is the next best thing.

The funny side of the story was that I met a blond 27-year old young lady named Harper when I got on the boat. She had her backpack packed for 2 nights of camping out on Elliot Key by herself. We hit it off immediately, and I kicked myself for not being ready to go… I didn’t trust that it would be OK! Harper is going to have a blast. I want to go back; maybe I can take Steve and any other of my blogging buddies who are up for an adventure like that.

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