Kayaking Key Largo

The first underwater park in the United States, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park encompasses approximately 70 nautical square miles. While the mangrove swamps and tropical hammocks in the park’s upland areas offer visitors a unique experience, it is the coral reefs and their associated marine life that bring most visitors to the park. Many enjoy the view of the reef from a glass-bottom boat tour, but visitors can get a closer look by scuba diving or snorkeling. The next three days we'll be snorkeling some of the reefs, but today was a day of relaxed kayaking. First we paddled across the boating channel to access the area forbidden to power craft...



...and the remainder of our two hours was through mangrove stands such as these. Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and sub-tropics. The dense root system of mangroves provides habitat for developing fish, protecting them from predators that are too big to negotiate the tight quarters of the roots. Mangroves also slow down water surges from hurricanes and the like as well as tide water, trapping and depositing sediment as the tide comes in, leaving all except fine particles when the tide ebbs. In this way, mangroves build their own environment and expand. Here we paddle through a mangrove channel...


Another interesting item is the loggerhead sponge seen below. They look like tires and provide a valuable service -- they clean the water, making it easy to study the bottoms of these channels as you pass over...


The next three days we'll be snorkeling, so come back and see pictures of that.