The Keys – Long Key State Park

Everyone has heard how wonderful the Keys are in the winter. EVERYONE has heard how wonderful the Keys are in the winter. To get a camping spot in the winter, you either have to pay over $100 a night at an RV park (plus make reservations months in advance), or pay $23 a night (senior citizen and Florida resident rate) for a night at a state park. The problem is that you need to make the reservations online at least 6 months in advance and then you’re lucky to get more than a few days. The other thing you can hope for is cancellations. I tried for several weeks for openings and finally got one day at Long Key and one day at John Pennecamp State Parks. Not ideal, but it gives us a feel for the area.

The drive to the Keys is on a single highway with 42 bridges between Key Largo and Key West. The water is gorgeous, but the drive isn’t really that great with heavy traffic on the 2-lane road (it varies from 2-4 lanes).

Most of the Keys are narrow, so that our park was right along the highway. I thought it would be noisy with traffic, but instead the waves from the ocean soothed us to sleep. This is view from the bedroom of the RV.

The campsites are small, but there are trees on both sides between you and the next RV. Here’s a bird nesting in those trees.

There’s not really a beach behind the RV, but more of a mud and rock flat at low tide. In the morning I found a weathered float had come ashore. I thought about keeping it as a souvenir, but it was too big to easily store. Maybe the next camper will like to have it. I took a walk out at low tide and saw all sizes of crabs scuttling around.

At sunset we saw a windsurfer (or whatever this is called). He was tacking back and forth along with jumping up in the air when taking a curve. In the picture, he’s by the boat. 

Sunrise….

Pennekamp State Park had an aquarium with multiple tanks in their visitor center. Very educational.