Congaree National Park

 From Key West we headed up the Florida atlantic coast, through a little of Georgia and in to South Carolina. We the spent the day at Congaree National Park which is the largest intact hardwood old growth forest in the Eastern US. It is in a flood plain which makes for interesting ecosystems.

The water level was low while we were there, about 3 feet. The highest they have seen in the last several years was 18 feet so everything we saw was under water at some point. We toured the forest on a boardwalk and also took a 3 hour guided canoe trip.

Congaree is also know for it's synchronous fireflies which of course happened the week before we were there.

 

Our guide Hannah, a college student from SC.

We were on the Cedar Creek Canoe Trail, it was quiet and slow moving with lots of wildlife.

A Brown Water Snake, about 3 feet long.

This is an awful photo, not in focus. I was trying hard to get something better while keeping the canoe away from this log because this is a Water Moccasin, the first time I've seen a venomous snake in the wild.

Another Brown Water snake, not venomous so I wasn't afraid to get close to them.

 

After the canoe trip we toured the visitor center then walked through the woods on the boardwalk. This squirrel refused to pose for me, of maybe this was the view he wanted me to photograph.

My favorite part of Conagree was the Barred Owls. We found several to photograph. This was a juvenile that was part of a family of 4 or 5 as close as we could tell.

I think this is my favorite photo of the trip so far. It was one the path as we were walking from the parking lot to the visitor center.

 

leaving Key West

 After the Dry Tortugas we headed north from Key West, actually more east then north. Here are few left over photos.

We did drive by the southern most point buoy but each time the line of people waiting to take a photo was down the street so we just snapped a photo from the car of two random people and keep on driving.

 

We didn't have to even leave the resort to see wildlife, in addition to the wild chicken with chicks and the birds in every tree there were a lot of iguanas that hung out by the pool as if they owned it. Several including this one were pretty good sized, 3ish feet long.

The drive up US-1 through the keys is beautiful, especially with the top down. However it's hard to take any photos so I don't have much to post.

We tried to stay off the freeway as much as possible and found this beautiful road near Lake Okeechobee. The Martin Grade Scenic Highway is 12 miles of old trees with hanging moss covering the road like a tunnel.

 

a few more misc Dry Tortugas photos

Loggerhead Key Lighthouse.

Around half of the outside of the fort there is no land, just ocean. However the water is only waist deep or so.

We did some snorkeling while we were at the park. Just west of the fort is a coral reef but I found more fish and coral on the South Coaling Dock Ruins.

The snorkeling wasn't anywhere near the best I've done but it was still interesting.

more Dry Tortugas - Fort Jefferson

 

The fort is huge, made of 16 millions bricks and 3 stories high.

The entire fort is surrounded by a moat. The sally port in the front is the only way into the fort.

The two keys next to the fort and off limits this time of year because of the nesting sea birds.

The canyons are huge. The fort was planned for 450 large bore cannons but only about 240 were installed.

The ferry we took for the day, the Yankee Freedom III.

My favorite thing about photographing the fort was the way it was constructed, with many types of repeating structures. They make for interesting photographs.

Dry Tortugas/Fort Jefferson National Park

 Our next adventure in Key West was a day trip to the Dry Tortugas. This national park is roughly 100 square miles of ocean with 7 small islands. The largest host Fort Jefferson built in the 1800's. It's a massive fort built with around 16 million bricks and was the most powerful fort of it's time. 

The Dry Tortugas were discovered in 1513 by Ponce de León which he named, Las Tortugas which is Spanish for "the turtles" because they found an abundance sea turtles there that they captured and used as food while at sea.

The British later changed the name to Dry Tortugas so their ships would know there was no fresh water on any of the islands. The islands are about 70 miles west of Key West at the end of the barrier reef that starts at Miami. Deep water ships passing between the middle of the US in the Gulf of Mexico and the US east coast had to sail west until they passed the Dry Tortugas before they could sail north into the Gulf.

Heading away from the port in Key West aboard the Yankee Freedom III, a high speed cat that takes a little over 2 hours to reach the national park. The ride was pretty smooth and comfortable.

Fort Jefferson from the ocean side. There is a moat that runs around the fort even on the water side.

If you want to skip the boat ride there are a couple of sea planes that make multiple round trips each day. The ferry usually sells out several months in advance.

Two of the keys are off limits this time of year because thousands of sea birds are in breeding season.

The view out from the only entrance into the fort, the Sally Port.