John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
Monroe County. It is named for John D. Pennekamp, a Miami newspaper editor who campaigned for the Everglades and then for this reef when it was being stripped for the curio trade.
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Where is the snorkeling in Florida?
The only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States runs down the Keys, and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park off Key Largo in Monroe County is where most people meet it.
Bahia Honda and Dry Tortugas are the other two Keys names. On the mainland Atlantic coast the reef comes close enough to swim to in a few places: Bathtub Reef Beach in Martin County is a worm-rock reef that shelters a lagoon at low tide, and Red Reef Park, Gulfstream Park and Coral Cove Park in Palm Beach County all have rock within a short swim. For clear fresh water instead, Three Sisters Springs in Citrus County and Devil's Den in Levy County.
The places named in this answer.
Bahia Honda State Park Beach
Monroe County. At 36850 Overseas Highway on Big Pine Key, open 8 a.m. until sunset, 365 days a year, for $8 a vehicle plus a 50-cent county charge a head. Three beaches, Sandspur, Loggerhead and Calusa, with the old Bahia Honda bridge standing behind them.
Open the guide →Dry Tortugas National Park Beach
Monroe County. About 70 miles west of Key West and reached only by ferry, seaplane or private boat. Entry is $15 a person and covers seven days in a row, and nobody under 16 pays.
Open the guide →Bathtub Reef Beach
Martin County. 1585 SE MacArthur Boulevard in Stuart. The reef offshore was built by tiny tube-building Sabellariid sea worms that cement sand grains together into a vast network of tube dwellings, and more than 500 marine creatures live in it, endangered sea turtles among them.
Open the guide →Red Reef Park Beach
Palm Beach County. Thirty-nine acres at 1400 North Ocean Boulevard, open 8am to 10pm. An artificial reef close inshore holds parrotfish, sergeant major, snapper and barracuda; sand had covered the old one, and the city added fifteen limestone boulder modules to rebuild it.
Open the guide →Gulfstream Park Beach
Palm Beach County. Guarded, and one of the quieter county beaches - people come here when the bigger parks are full.
Open the guide →Coral Cove Park Beach
Palm Beach County. Nearly 15 acres at 19450 State Road 707 in Tequesta, with 2,610 feet of ocean frontage and 600 feet on the Intracoastal. Natural limestone outcrops of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge run down into the water and hold fish, eels and turtles, which is why snorkelers come here.
Open the guide →Three Sisters Springs
Citrus County. Three Sisters Springs is at 917 Three Sisters Springs Trail in Crystal River, and getting there takes a small amount of planning. There is no public parking on site unless you hold a disabled parking permit.
Open the guide →Devil’s Den Prehistoric Spring
Levy County. The roof of a limestone cavern fell in long ago and left an opening at the surface with clear water about a hundred and twenty feet across below it. Light comes down through that opening and that is what people photograph.
Open the guide →More questions like this.
Where is the scuba diving in Florida?
Saltwater diving means the Keys and the reef: John Pennekamp in Monroe County, and Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade, which is mostly water rather than land.
Which Florida springs can you swim in?
Florida has more first-magnitude springs than anywhere else on earth, and most of them run at about seventy-two degrees every day of the year, so they are cold in August and warm in January.
Where can you go scalloping in Florida?
Bay scalloping is a Big Bend and Nature Coast thing, from Franklin County down to Hernando.
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