Sunrise at the Beach

One of the last mornings on the beach, I managed to get myself up early enough to go for an early morning walk with Jeff and Max.  It was a lovely calm morning, and I hoped to get some good sunrise, or at least early morning images.

As we approached the formal beach area, where we figured we get the best sunrise images.  But, we weren’t the first on the beach!!  A little shorebird beat us to the beach.  The pretty part of the sunrise hadn’t yet started, but he/she definitely had a front row seat!!

As the skies began to warm, pelicans flew in their own somewhat haphazard pattern across the sky, creating a lovely profile of nature.  It was nice to be up and about when what is typically a very lively beach was very quiet.

And, as I turned to view the beach back down toward where we were camped, I got this lovely view of a deserted beach.  The seaweed residue, however, was creating quite the uncomfortable sensation for my lower legs.  Lots and lots of little sandflies or something kept choosing me as their breakfast entrée – ouch!!

Max, of course, was patiently watching me and seemed to wonder why I just didn’t move to get away from the sandflies!!  He was unusually patient.  Perhaps he was confused by what I was doing.  I just need to take him on some of my photo outings, I guess!

The beach seems to roll on into the grove (??) of palm trees.  In actuality, there is a small channel between where the beach ends and the palm trees begin.  We’re just looking at a very nice optical illusion!  And, the sunrise colors are showing off their pale color this morning, too.

As the sun rose behind the clouds, I felt like the morning was a “soft” one – no blazes of colors, just an easing into the day.  Such a relaxing way to begin the morning.

But some were up and out earlier than us.  This fishing boat is making the most of a calm morning to see what sort of catch they can reel in.  I do love the play of the soft colors on both the clouds and the water.  The reflection of the sunrise is so incredibly peaceful.  

Enjoy!

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!

At the Beach in the Florida Keys

Our first morning in the Keys began with a walk on the beach after the sun had risen.  What a soft morning!

Looking to the north, there were some mangroves that grew out over the shoreline.  This state park is on its own little island, Little Crawl Key, and there are lots and lots of mangroves on the island.  But, more about those in a later blog.

Off to the other direction, you can see another small island beyond the shoreline tree.  That island is called Deer Key, and Jeff and I had thoughts of kayaking around that island.  We’ll see…..

The beach also turned out to be perfect for wind surfing!  No, we didn’t try that (visiting an emergency room was not on our agenda!), but we did enjoy the show they often put on in the afternoons!  The bright colored parachutes really looked great against the blue, blue sky.

I did learn something interesting about wind surfing – there is a part of the parachute that gets inflated!  It helps to stabilize the chute when it’s in the air, and helps the surfer control the chute.

And, control is what’s needed to be able to fly!  Some of the tricks that they do in the air – twists, flips, etc. – certainly require them having control of the parachute in the wind, which can shift at any time!  They do a good job of doing that!!

As I was looking up at the wind surfers, I noticed all the coconuts ripening on the palm tree!  No wonder anyone chose to sit under this tree!

Our last view will be a mid-day view of Deer Key.  I like this because the blue of the sky and the ocean is so vibrant!  The trees and beach grass compliment it perfectly, too.

Enjoy!  

A Walk on the Wild Side

Across from Curry Hammock State Park (where we stayed for 2 weeks) is a sort of annex of the park, what is billed as a Nature Trail.  One morning, Jeff and I decided to take Max on a trail walk, since it was pet-friendly.  The walk began on Grassy Key Trail, a trail that will, eventually, run the entire length of the Keys and will be paved (black-topped) so that walkers, runners and bikers can easily enjoy it.

But, there is a nature trail that branches off from Grassy Key Trail after about ¼ mile from the point where we started.  The map from Curry Hammock provided a map and we thought it would be a good morning outing.  I guess I sort of assumed it would be somewhat of an easy trail to walk (by that, I mean sandy), so I just had my sandals on.  However, as we started down the trail, I realized that it wasn’t going to be a sandy trail!

In fact, the path was covered in patches of coral!  As a bit of history, this part of Florida, the Keys, is fairly “new” land in the overall history of the world.  It’s only about 100,000 years old, a mere baby when you consider the Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years!!  I guess  some  might say the ancient people of the Earth were also responsible for the last great ice age (prehistoric global warming, I guess!) , because, at that time, while snow accumulated forming glaciers in some areas, in other parts of the world, sea levels were dropping, exposing coral reefs that flourish in the Keys.  So, the foundation of the Keys is coral, like you see in the photos above.  It was rather difficult walking on these coral reefs, since the coral is now like some extremely hard and unforgiving rocks, and not the delicate living organism that one finds underwater!  Needless to say, my sandals weren’t really made for this type of walking!!

One thing we did come across that wasn’t plant life, or coral, in nature, were these bones.  We have no idea to what they really belong, but we are guessing that maybe they are those of a Key Deer.  Key Deer are a subspecies of the white-tail deer and are only found on the Florida Keys. They are smaller than typical deer.  There is a protected refuge for them in the Keys.  However, it appears that the area was quite extensively damaged during Hurricane Irma (first Category 5 storm of the Atlantic 2017 hurricane season).  Did this little deer get lost and somehow end up here, several miles north of the protected refuge, due to the storm?  We’ll never know, but it is a mystery of nature.

I have to admit, I really like to photograph palms, and the Keys are certainly a great place to find them!  There were also plenty on this trail.  Here are 2 of my favorite images – one because of the great pattern of lines, leading to or away from the “heart” as I think of it.  The second image is one that really shows how lovely they can look when the sun shines from behind and really lights up the green!

Another interesting thing we saw was this perfectly round hole in the ground as we walked along what seemed to be the main path.  We couldn’t imagine what it was until, a few steps further on the trail, we came to a palm tree growing out of what looks like a similar hole!  Apparently, the palm tree that the hole we discovered once held was pulled out or somehow removed (no palm tree lay around that area) and left that perfect hole!

I call this “perfect irony”.  As we walked off and out of the trail, back onto the paved Grassy Key Trail, not far from our Jeep, we noticed this sign.  A fine time for a warning!!  LOL!!

Enjoy!