Biscayne National Park
Friday Flashback
National Park Series #15
National parks in the southeast are VERY different from national parks in the west! For starters, we knew it would be miserable camping in the summer, so we had to move our traditional camping vacation to spring break. Even that was cutting it close some years - because of the bugs. I had never heard of no-see-ums before moving to Florida, but they exist and their bites are awful. We would have packed up and gone home after one day, except that in Biscayne, you don't drive up to your campsite - you take a ferry - and it wasn't coming back for us for a week!
Fortunately, they had these cool vehicles to transport our gear from the dock to the campsite. And because we didn't know any better, we set up our regular camp. (You will notice in future posts that we invested in a screen tent before we went camping again!)
However, in spite of the bugs (poor Steven was literally covered in bites, that then got infected and scabbed over), we had a good time. There were some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets to watch. Because there was only one hiking trail (6 miles running the length of Elliott Key), there was plenty of time to play in the water - snorkeling, boating, and just relaxing.
Maybe we would have enjoyed it more without the bugs, but at least we had a memorable vacation in 2001 - and they're good memories!
National Park Series #15
National parks in the southeast are VERY different from national parks in the west! For starters, we knew it would be miserable camping in the summer, so we had to move our traditional camping vacation to spring break. Even that was cutting it close some years - because of the bugs. I had never heard of no-see-ums before moving to Florida, but they exist and their bites are awful. We would have packed up and gone home after one day, except that in Biscayne, you don't drive up to your campsite - you take a ferry - and it wasn't coming back for us for a week!
Fortunately, they had these cool vehicles to transport our gear from the dock to the campsite. And because we didn't know any better, we set up our regular camp. (You will notice in future posts that we invested in a screen tent before we went camping again!)However, in spite of the bugs (poor Steven was literally covered in bites, that then got infected and scabbed over), we had a good time. There were some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets to watch. Because there was only one hiking trail (6 miles running the length of Elliott Key), there was plenty of time to play in the water - snorkeling, boating, and just relaxing.
Maybe we would have enjoyed it more without the bugs, but at least we had a memorable vacation in 2001 - and they're good memories!
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