Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys

We drove from Marathon to Bahia Honda State Park which is about a 30 miles drive south.

We finally drive on what we thought the Keys would be like, on most of our drive in the Keys.

Seven Miles Bridge runs next to the old  Seven Mile Historic Bridge.

The historic bridge is pretty rough. It was used a few years ago for the movie True Lies with Arnold Scwartsneger in the big helecopter/car chase scene.

The fee to enter into the park is $9. Our first stop was at Sandspur Beach

The beach is very narrow.

I found this flower among the natural vegetation, up from the beach. You know how I like flowers!

The temps were high eighties with high humidity. There is a campground in this area, as well as a pavilion for picnicking. We ate our lunch, before moving on.

Next we drove through another campground in the park called Buttonwood. You have to book Buttonwood or Sandspur 11 months ahead of time on line, and if you can get a spot, it is like winning the lottery. We tried for about a week every morning at eight on the dot, but the sites are booked in a few seconds. The water front sites were not that impressive. We like the water front sites better where we are at now.

It has a boat ramp, but Jolly Rogers has one too.

This is Logger Head Beach in the park. We don't like the see weed much for swimming,

but I like the beauty of the natural blend of colors!

It cost $43 a night at Bahia Honda. With our passport discount it cost $39 at Jolly Rogers, where we are at now.

We drove to Calusa Beach, another beach in the Buttonwood camping area. Joe could not get the umbrella to go more than a couple of inches into the thin layer of sand using his hammer. He ended up holding it up while I went for a swim.

I am waist deep, and you can see my toes.

Looking back at the beach, while I cool off in the water.

A school of fish about a foot and half feet long swan by me several times. 

I chase them around, trying to get pictures of them. They just kept swimming around the swimming area avoiding the swimmers. Everyone was watching them even after I went a shore.

This was a much better beach than Sandspurc, or Logger Head Beaches, in the park. Also note the old historic bridge in the distance. They removed a section of it so tall ships could pass under it.

Joe never got in the water, because he didn't wear his swim suit, so he was getting hot. I wanted to take the trail up to the old historic bridge that has been restored for viewing. He finally conceded to walk up.

The trail is very short,

but we went the wrong way and ended on a hill below the bridge.

So we backtracked our steps.

We saw this iguana going back.

.

He runs into the woods.

I also saw these all over in the brush.

Looking further I saw that these were seed pods.

A few still had their seeds.

I believe this is where the rangers have their nightly presentations.( This is along the trail, where we turned the wrong way.)

We make it back to where we took the wrong turn.

Half way up the bridge, we got this view. There is an island way out there. Before we had come up this trail, I thought I had seen a person on the island.

As we came up farther, I heard someone say there was a person swimming from the island.

I took a close up of him, but he was just a speck on the picture and not worth posting.

We get to the top of the bridge and look over to the old historic bridge.

Joe had to admit this was worth the $9 park fee.

This is a view of the repaired bridge we walked up, from the trail.

You can see across to the new "Seven Mile Bridge", from the old bridge.

Gorgeous views.

Close up of Calusa Beach in Bahia Honda State Park, and the island.

Logger Head Beach below on the other side.

The Sand & Sea Nature Center is also located next to the Calusa Beach parking lot.

We left the park and headed north to Marathon, crossing back over the Seven Mile Bridge. We stopped to walk on the 2.2 mile restore historic bridge, on the other side, that is used for fishing.

At the end of the 2.2 mile bridge, there is a ferry that takes you out several times in the morning and early afternoon, to Pigeon Key Island..

View from bridge. 
We only walk a very short distant, as the day was very hot, and it was time to get some where cool, and call it a day.