Biscayne National Park

Next on our list, Biscayne National Park, known as “a watery wonderland”.

But first, some down time in Homestead (which lasted Monday – Thursday) at Larry and Penny ThompsonCounty Park. 

Larry and Penny County Park has a huge field that they let people dry camp in, so we took advantage of this and used the space to get a few workouts in during bouts of relaxation. 🙂 

Being in close proximity to big cities (like Miami) always provides needed amenities… we filled up on groceries, washed the van (checkout those shinny tires!), and ran some other errands. 

Biscayne National Park

Wednesday morning we linked up with our travel buddies Joe and Maraea to take a snorkel boat tour at Biscayne National Park. 

With the the government being shut down we weren’t sure if everything would we up and running, but we boarded the tour boat around 9:30am and spent three hours out on the water. All good! 

The boat took us thirty ish miles off shore past the keys of Biscayne and out to Anniversary Reef. 

Fun Fact: Biscayne is the start of the third largest Great Barrier Reef in the world! 

For the tour, the boat Moors on a bouey in the middle of the ocean and you hop off and snorkel. 

The cool thing is the water was pretty shallow (between 6-12 feet) and for the most part and crystal clear. 

The reef was made up of huge pieces of fan coral in a rainbow of colors. And we saw so many bright fish and I even saw a puffer fish! 

The highlight of the snorkel for me was…  duna, duna, duna… I was swimming after a school of larger fish and all of a sudden they all scattered… and… Shark! 

I was lucky enough to see (what we think) was a 6-8 foot nurse shark. 

Needless to say, I hightailed it back to the group of snorkelers pretty quickly. 

Biscayne Recap

This was some of the most amazing snorkeling I have ever done, and even though I saw a shark, it was a great experience. 

We want to visit again when they run their shipwreck snorkel tour (which was not running)! If visiting Miami, add this to your list. 

Life after Biscayne National Park

The rest of the week we spent working, laying in the sun and hanging with Joe and Maraea in camp. 

STAY TUNED!!! Because next up, we set off to the Miami airport to catch a flight to the US Virgin Islands!!

Resources

Larry and Penny Thompson County Park – Website
Biscayne National Park Tours – Website