Key Deer, Key West, and New Year

Big Pine Key – Sunshine Key Rv Resort

We’ve been busy and haven’t had much time to post the blog. 

On Friday, we took a drive down to the main island of Big Pine Key to try to find the famous Key Deer.

They are smaller than white tailed deer with an adult male weighing between 55 and 75 pounds and standing about 30 inches tall at the shoulders.  Of course the female (does) are smaller.

They are considered an endangered species and are very carefully protected here in the Keys.  They estimate there are about 600-800 deer.  They mainly reside on Big Pine Key and No Name key, but recently some have been moved to other islands because of their population is getting too large to be sustained on Big Pine Key.

There are also signs everywhere telling you not to feed them.  Some people don’t listen.

As soon as we spotted the first few deer, we could tell they were used to being fed because they started coming to you if you got out of the car.  If you put your hand out, they really came close.

These were two youngsters looking for a handout.  I resisted. 

We spotted this large iguana in the same area.  People really don’t like them because they eat the blooms off the flowers.

Although not originally in our plans we ended up driving all the way down to Key West, which is about 40 miles from our campground

Key West is the southernmost portion of the United States and at the end of a string of islands.

Cuba is only 90 miles from Key West.

We had been to Key West before and knew what to expect.  Crowds, traffic, and narrow streets.  Nothing had changed.

There is a lot of history there…Ernest Hemingway, Fort Zachary Taylor.  There are a lot of old houses and one day I really would like to come back and take one of the trollies or trains and go on the tour.

It was very crowded when we went partially do to the beautiful 80 degree temperatures and partly because a lot of people were out of school for the Christmas break.

We did make a short stop at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.  There was no campground there, but they had a beautiful beach (just too crowded).

There was a nice area for snorkeling.

Lots of sea grass washed up on the beach.  You can’t stop nature.

The park was really very nice.  There was a nice picnic area.

On the way back home, we found a great little hidden gem of a campground.  I’ll post some pictures later.  I just wanted to catch up the blog a little bit.

New Years Eve found us on a kayak trip at Bahia Honda State Park.  Afterwards, we came home, grilled some steaks and fresh Key West shrimp and called it a day.  No, we didn’t stay up long enough to see the New Year in!  We were up early (as usual) yesterday morning to watch the sunrise, and by 10 pm, we were pooped out.

It’s going to be pretty warm here today.  It’s already 76 degrees and it’s only 9am.  We are having a front move in next week bringing wind and cooler weather, so we’re going to have to play hard until then.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!