A beautiful road winds through the islands to Key West. Near the town of Marathon, you can stroll across the picturesque abandoned Old Seven Mile Bridge. We spent four days in Key West, one of which we dedicated to a trip to Dry Tortugas National Park.
It's 260 kilometers (160 miles) or a three-hour drive from Miami Airport to Key West. But getting to Dry Tortugas isn't easy; you need to book a tour, either by boat or plane. I'll tell you more about this national park in my next post.
On the map of Key West I have marked the points mentioned in this post.
A panoramic view of Miami from a plane before landing. Before takeoff, the pilot announced it was a flight to Honolulu. I automatically started packing my things and moving to another plane. But then the pilot admitted he was joking. 🙂 Delta pilots are generally very chatty; for example, they love to tell you why a flight is delayed and what problems they've discovered with the plane. On the previous leg of this flight, for example, the pilot announced that the light that controls the heating of a tube in the tail of the plane wasn't working. Since he couldn't check it himself, a mechanic would come and touch the tube. The mechanic arrived, touched it, and the plane was replaced. They also often announce that a plane is ready for takeoff, but they can't find the crew.
We picked up a car at the Miami airport and drove to Miami Beach for the night, then headed toward Key West in the morning. About halfway along the road, there's a particularly picturesque stretch where you can see the remains of an old road running parallel to the new one. The old bridge was built at the beginning of the century, but in 1935 it was partially destroyed during a severe storm. The road looks very abandoned—rusted, with potholes, and bushes and trees gradually encroaching on the roadbed. It turns out that part of this road is open to tourists.
To get to the old bridge, make sure to park right at the exit from Marathon. If you miss it, you'll have to drive across the new bridge there and back, a 14-mile drive.
Of course, we didn't cross the entire bridge, only the section connecting the town of Marathon with Pigeon Key Island, where the road's builders once lived. You can't get to the island from the bridge; you have to take a ferry.
Pigeon Key is 2.2 miles one way (7 kilometers there and back)—a 100-mile detour for a rabid dog. Even during a beach trip, I managed to squeeze in a hike.
After Pigeon Key, there are several dips in the old bridge's bed, and there's no access. I noticed there's pedestrian access on the other side of the bridge, but we didn't stop there.
There comes a point in every hike after which going forward is still far, and turning back is foolish. Everything would have been fine, but the hike was a bit unplanned. We didn't bring water, and my wife had the wrong shoes. In temperatures above 30 degrees, such pranks end badly. I was getting by just fine, but my wife was giving me death glares. Stirlitz had never been so close to failure.
Pelican aerobatic team.
I had to quickly save my wife (and save myself from my wife), so I had to practically run to photograph the iguana waiting for us at the bridge exit, just like the pelicans above. There was a tourist center nearby, where I filled up with bottles of water, and we continued on. On the way back to town, we stopped at Bahia Honda Park and took our first swim. This beach is heavily advertised in guidebooks, but in reality, it wasn't impressive.
Since this was our second time in Key West, we mostly spent time on the beaches rather than visiting the sights. Our first stop was Smathers Beach. The water is clean and clear, but quite shallow. Umbrellas and lounge chairs are available for rent at each beach.
Alcohol isn't sold on the beach. You can go to a nearby hotel and ask for takeaway drinks. However, drinking is still prohibited on the beach.
Why not the Maldives?
The next beach is Higg's, located near the long pier on White Street. Some seaweed:
View from the pier. The water is knee-deep almost everywhere:
Most of the coastline is rocky. Some beaches belong to hotels, and outsiders are kept away.
It wasn't until I was writing this post that I realized I didn't have any photos of Key West's best beach, located in Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Park. The beach is rocky and difficult to wade into, but at least it has some depth. The cover photo of this post shows a view of the beach from an airplane. There's an entrance fee to the park.
Source: travel.ru
