Biscayne National Park Guide: Visiting 3 Lighthouses & Exploring Boca Chita Key

[Music] biscayne national park is one of three national parks in florida and it sits southeast of miami the park is almost entirely underwater but you can take boat tours that will take you to some of the above water parts of the park like the lighthouses and the keys we went on the lighthouses of biscayne bay boat cruise which was only offered once per month and which took us to three lighthouses including a stop at boca cheetah key for some exploring here's all the information on bizcane national park and let me know what you think in the comments [Music] our tour left from the deering estate which is a beautiful historic home about 45 minutes drive from miami it was a really nice drive and you could actually go in the estate after the tour as well [Music] so 95 of this park is underwater this is one of the only ways to see it and they only offer this tour one day per month so we got lucky in that it happened to be the day that we're here it's about four hours you're gonna see a new national park run pops are gonna leave without us just walking to the boat was beautiful and you can often see manatees in the small cove as well our tour was relatively small with only about 15 people on it [Music] so we're starting right here and we're gonna go up to here and then we're gonna go down to here and back that's the tour for today leaving the estate the water was incredibly smooth as we went past the mangroves and the palm trees on our way out to the open water this channel is really shallow and if you're lucky you can see animals below you as you head out i was blown away by how stunning this boat ride started and was excited for an entire day exploring the national park [Music] we had a docent that came with us that told us information the entire time we were on the boat it was fantastic and there was a lot of history on miami the lighthouses and the surrounding area plus any questions you had he was more than willing to answer [Music] as we made our way out to the lighthouse we got to see the miami skyline and we learned that biscayne national park is over 170 000 acres with four distinct ecosystems [Music] we also got to see stiltsville from afar which is a collection of houses restaurants and clubs that were built in the 1930s to the 1950s this is a pretty crazy part of miami's history as people used to come out here and party and hang out unfortunately we didn't get to get too close on this tour but i'd love to come back and just hear about stiltsville from there we arrived at our first of three lighthouses the cape florida lighthouse this historic lighthouse was built in 1825 and was operated until 1878. it sits on the south end of key biscayne and you can actually go visit it if you're interested as there's a state park that surrounds the lighthouse the lighthouse is around 95 feet tall and you can tour and climb it on certain days from there we headed into the open water for about a 20 minute ride to the fowley rocks lighthouse this lighthouse sits about seven miles away from the cape florida lighthouse and it actually replaced that lighthouse in 1878 it's a popular place for fishing and for marine life so there was tons of other boats sitting around the lighthouse when we arrived [Music] the lighthouse is made of cast iron and has what they call a skeletal tower it's still in operation today and it sits about 110 feet above the water this lighthouse looks really crazy and it is pretty incredible to see definitely a highlight of our time in the national park from there it was another 20 minute ride to boca cheetah key which is our main stop on the tour bokeh cheetah key is a 32 acre island that was once privately owned it's the most visited island in the national park and private boats come here daily in order to explore the island we docked here and we got about 45 minutes to explore which included going to the lighthouse or taking a half-mile hiking trail our group headed first to the lighthouse where the guide supposedly had keys in order to open the structure what's crazy about the lighthouse is it's just ornamental it was built in the 1930s when the island was privately owned and guests were entertained here the lighthouse is 65 feet tall and since it's easily accessible it's very popular spot in the park this island is actually pretty popular there's a whole bunch of people here just for the day hanging out i thought it was interesting to see as many people and like picnic benches and everything must be a fun place to hang out in florida if you have a boat they're trying to unlock the lighthouse for us but someone actually owned this island so this cannon was used for ceremonial like shooting the candy when people came and then this lighthouse is actually ceremonial as well it was never an actual lighthouse but it'd be cool to go up in it the lighthouse is made of a coral rock and it was built in the 1930s the story goes that it was actually lit for a few hours before it became a navigational hazard and it was never lit again so unfortunately they locked the lighthouse in a weird direction so they can't get the key in so we don't get to go up to the top of the lighthouse which is at least for the moment maybe it'll maybe they'll figure it out yeah maybe on the way back but we're going to go do a little loop around the island there's a whole bunch of campgrounds on the island as well and a bathroom so it's a nice place to stay do note that there's no running water and you have to pack out what you pack in pretty bummed i didn't bring my swimsuit because this water looks perfect get all those fish right there it's the only beach i've ever been on where you get stung by mosquitoes [Music] after exploring the beach we decided to head out on the half mile trail that goes around the small island [Music] so the way my dad feels about going in caves is basically the same way he feels about mosquitoes so i'm going on the trail by myself because there's a lot of mosquitoes trail began right where our boat docked and it made its way right along the coast of the island mosquitoes weren't too bad in the beginning but they get worse later [Music] there's a whole bunch of fish swimming down there i think these are the mangroves and then a whole bunch down there as well look i don't know if you can see but like right here there's just a huge clump of fish [Music] it's crazy is how far we are away from miami you can see it right out there way out in the distance the trail continued around the back side of the island with beautiful views out towards the open ocean [Music] little crab there was even a couple little beaches you could hang out at back here but i was trying to escape the mosquito gauntlet i had found myself in all right i finished the trail my dad was right it's like mosquito death alley right basically ran through there because there were so many mosquitoes so uh probably not worth it unless you want to see the whole island so yeah bummer we couldn't go up in the lighthouse trail didn't really have any views there was like a little bit of a beach some places where you could see some fish but overall cool time on the island even though we got eaten alive by mosquitoes and this is definitely a pretty fun trip by the time i finished the hiking trail we had to get back on the boat for a ride back to the mainland it was only a 30 minute ride back and it was a beautiful and relaxing way to end our trip in biscayne national park [Music] we made it back to dry land i would say that was a pretty fun tour what do you it's a great tour yeah just to be out on a boat so if you want to check out bizcane national park while you're here and you don't have any snorkel or scuba gear do that tour we will see you on the next video [Music] you

Channel: Through My Lens

Views: 15,029

Keywords:

Id: LAeRMrje3c8

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 23 2022