Tuesday , Nov 6 To Big Pine Key (day trip) FL

Seeing the Key Deer and touching the Atlantic Ocean

After the great "Encounter" withthe Dolphins, we took the next day to unwind a bit and drove south on some of the adjacent Keys to Marathon. The "Key" arrangement is truly mind boggleing as there are really hundreds of Keys (Island) , not just the ones mentioned on some of the maps. Some are tiny and can be crossed by car in a few minutes, others are not visited at all, and some stretch into the Gulf side some 10-20 miles as does Boggy Key and some of Long Key.

Actually the Everglades National Park has as its southern boundary the complete enclosure of hundreds of keys which extends the edge of the park to within a few miles of the Key as we know them by the highway (US1) that connects those well know keys all the way to Key West. (The Marine Sanctuarty is thusands of square miles.)

The seven mile bridge that connects Marathon Key 

to the keys south of it (Big Pine Key)

One of the hundreds of islands (Keys) that fill the 

marine portion of the Everglades National Park

Didn't know that, eh? Neither did I.

The reason for traveling south that day was to see if we could find the Key Deer, that are known to live only on a few Keys  there in the center of those Islands. We stopped at the visitor center and wanted o ask about the deer, but as we were driving into the parking lot , one of them crossed the road in front of us as cars squealed to a stop to avoid hitting it. It seems that they have free rein in these islands they inhabit and although endangered, are let loose to run free with no boundaries . We were able to see more than a dozen that day in just a few miles of driving.

The key deer number a few hundred  and are protected. They

weigh in the neighborhood of 40-50 pounds (largest)

This male "spike horn  (below) wandered out of the woods near us .

It was the largest we saw and they stand about 35 inches tall.

A large green Gecko (lizard)  was seen in a tree and then on the ground near us , They are common here as well as the Iguana we saw on Monday.

A Yellow rumped Warbler was seen while eating lunch 

in a roadside parking lot. There were few warblers at this time

 of year as the migration was  a few weeks away  yet

This is the beach at the end of the road whee we were housed . 

Cathy wanted to "get in the water" So we slowly walked through the sand

toward the water. She tried to reach the water with her hand, but the brace she wore with her shoe would not let her do so without falling . She did get in the water, but not the way she wanted to.

Gracious folks nearby helped her to her feet  and she was embarrassed but jubilant at the same time. She had "touched" the Atlantic Ocean.

We added a touch of more dolphin awareness when we spotted this sign

outside the Marathon HS. They were established in 1957 and took on the 

Dolphin as their mascot and symbol.