Kayaking the Mangrove Tunnel

One of the things that Jeff and I committed to do was to kayak while in the Keys.  The state park where we camped was known for some good places to kayak, including through the mangrove tunnel there.  The tunnel was formed because Curry Hammock State Park in on a very small island, Crawl Key, and there’s a very tiny bridge that one needs to cross to get from Marathon Key to the state park.  There are mangroves growing on either side of the water separating Crawl and Marathon Keys, and the mangroves have been trimmed so that a natural tunnel was formed.

Although the launching area for the kayaks was very clear of mangroves and an easy launch spot, we decided to rent a kayak rather than use our inflatable kayak because of wanting to go through the mangrove tunnel.  Jeff’s concern was that the parts of the mangrove trees that were underwater might be sharp enough to poke a hole in our kayak – not a good thing!  So, we took off in a rented kayak, and were quite the comedy routine taking off and getting a handle on the hard plastic kayak, which seemed more difficult to steer, etc., than our kayak.

Finding the entrance to the mangrove tunnel was another challenge.  We knew we needed to head close to the main highway that ran through the Keys, but that wasn’t all that much help, due to how thick the mangroves were.  This was the entrance to the tunnel, believe it or not.  The tunnel wasn’t really visible until we were practically on top of the entrance!

Not long after we started down the tunnel, we came across the bridge that we drove on every time we entered or exited the park.  A couple of very large crabs were just hanging out on the side of the bridge, too.

There were a couple of interesting things about kayaking under the bridge – the first was that the “roof” of the tunnel wasn’t at all damp or slimy, as I thought it would be.  And, thank goodness for that, because the second thing was that the water level was so high, we could barely fit under the bridge!!  I practically had my head to my knees – I couldn’t even turn around to see how Jeff was managing to paddle us through here!  Needless to say, it was easy to reach up and touch the “roof”.  What was more difficult was not hitting my head!!

The “smallness” of the tunnel didn’t get much better when we exited from the tunnel.  Jeff had indicated that it was probably better if he was the only one paddling, as there was concern about getting our paddles caught up in the undergrowth of the mangrove under the water.  Also, that gave me the option of using my hands or paddle to attempt to steer us clear of the branches above the water and hopefully down the correct path to maneuver our way through the tunnel.

It seemed like a much longer time than I thought to make it through the mangrove maze, as I began to think of the tunnel!  I was wondering if somehow we had gotten turned around, when I began to see the light, so to speak – or in this case, the blue sky!  The brown in the image are the leaves that fell off the mangroves and were getting water logged enough to eventually sink to the floor of the waterway.

And, finally, we were in open water!!  At first, we thought we might kayak across to the tiny island directly in front of us, Deer Key.  But, then, we hadn’t really considered how much more effort it would take to kayak in the ocean, so we decided to just continue to kayak around the island the park sits on. 

 

As we kayaked around the island, we ended up kayaking along the beach where the swimmers, windsurfers, etc. have their fun!  In the top image, you can see how close our camp site is to the beach (see the arrow).  The bottom image is of some really pretty palm trees that were across from where the beach and kayak launch is located.    Quite the scenic kayak tour for this portion of our ride!

And, finally, a cormorant came by to say hi as we kayaked by the sign that warns the speed boats not to come closer to shore, and keeps the kayakers, swimmers and wind surfers safe!

Enjoy!