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| Ornamental Lighthouse, Boca Chita Key Enshrouded by palms and caressed by Caribbean trade winds, this former millionaire's retreat is located on one of 50 islands in Biscayne National Park. |
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| The entry to the Dante Fascell Visitor Center at Biscayne National Park is full of ornamental bronze artwork and other extraordinary efforts to make the place a world class museum and park. |
The least spoiled (and trashed) of the Big Three National Parks in South Florida is Biscayne National Park, in part because most of the park is underwater, and in part because the part of the park that is not underwater is not easily accessible.
We took SW 328th Street from the Miami Speedway in Homestead out a lonely road about 9 miles east to the Dante Fascell Visitor Center on a recent afternoon. The park was mostly deserted.
The park visitor center is named for the late U.S. Representative who represented Dade County in Congress. Fascell worked to champion the creation of Biscayne National Park and was thus remembered with the naming of the center and museum in his honor. Representative Fascell, a Democrat, died in 1998.
We took SW 328th Street from the Miami Speedway in Homestead out a lonely road about 9 miles east to the Dante Fascell Visitor Center on a recent afternoon. The park was mostly deserted.
The park visitor center is named for the late U.S. Representative who represented Dade County in Congress. Fascell worked to champion the creation of Biscayne National Park and was thus remembered with the naming of the center and museum in his honor. Representative Fascell, a Democrat, died in 1998.
Above: I hold the City of Miami in the palm of my hand, looking north across Biscayne Bay. However, the camera doesn't see what the human eye sees, so in the image above it is hard to make out the Miami skyline. The only negative at this great park were the tiny biting flies and mosquitoes. I wore plenty of clothes and repellant but the bugs found a way to bite anyway.
Within sight of downtown Miami, yet worlds away, Biscayne National Park protects a rare combination of aquamarine waters, emerald islands, and fish-bejeweled coral reefs. Here too is evidence of 10,000 years of human history, from pirates and shipwrecks to pineapple farmers and presidents. Outdoors enthusiasts can boat, snorkel, camp, watch wildlife. . .or simply relax in a rocking chair gazing out over the bay.
Below: Using a much longer lens the Miami skyline comes into focus.
Below: Another shot of Miami across Biscayne Bay as viewed from Convoy Point near Homestead. Tweaking the contrast of the image, the skyscrapers of Miami become more visible in this shot.
Orange Geiger Trees
(Cordia sebestena)
One of my favorite plants in Biscayne National Park are the Orange Geiger Trees. Also referred to coloquially as Geranium Trees, Anaconda, and Scarlet Cordia, the orange geiger tree (Cordia sebestena; officially the largeleaf geigertree) is one of the most well-known of South Florida's blooming trees with showy, deep orange flowers that contrast the tree's coarse green leaves. It is not known if the tree is native or introduced from Cuba, like so many other species in South Florida. It was named in the 1830's by John James Audubon after John Geiger, a harbor pilot who salvaged sunken treasure off the coast of Key West with whom Audubon stayed and painted. Geiger's Key West home, which sported a large geiger tree in the front yard, later became Audubon House and Tropical Gardens. The other species of geiger tree in South Florida are the white (Cordia boissieri) and yellow geiger (Cordia lutea).
I liked how the geiger tree flowers made art as they fell onto the sculptured coral walkways and retaining walls found throughout Biscayne National Park (above).
The Dante Fascell Visitor Center is by far the best of those found in south Florida's National Parks. It is surrounded by tropical foliage, bronze sculptures of various fish species and offers a quiet, cool place to rest and reflect while looking out on Biscayne Bay. The center contains a museum that offers a virtual journey through the park's four ecosystems using dioramas, audio and video.
Ecotones
Biscayne National Park is a very diverse place. Four distinct ecosystems melt into one another creating rich edge communities, or "ecotones." These edges support an incredible array of wildlife, including hundreds of species of colorful fish, plants found nowhere else in the United States, and visitor favorites like pelicans, manatees and turtles. Winds, currents, storms and the park's close proximity to one of the nation's largest urban areas means that the entire park is in a constant state of flux — ever-changing in the face of new challenges posed by the constant cycle of building and destruction.
Above: The view across Biscayne Bay toward Elliot Key from the Museum at the Dante Fascell Visitor Center.
These are a couple of shots of displays in the Dante Fascell Visitor Center Museum; dioramas of the mangrove ecosystem. I especially liked how they used molded glass and plexiglass to create lasting, artificial water.
“Florida Mangroves: The Silent Sentinels” exhibit is part of the park’s Community Artists Program, started in 1997 as an outlet for the works of artists who are inspired by the beauty of Biscayne National Park. The show is made possible by a grant from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the South Florida National Parks Trust, and Sedano’s Supermarkets.
Below: The "hammock" ecosystem in the Museum at Biscayne National Park.
A view of the harbor at the Visitor Center. The waters of the harbor are chock full of fish.
Above and Below:
I noticed this little artistic touch.
A manatee bench, made of concrete.
The bench is shaded by a large orange geiger tree.
We won't be able to grow one of those in Central Florida unless
climate change accelerates. The geiger tree is sensitive to even periodic cold.
Compass Rose
Another unexpected and likely overlooked detail at the Visitor Center is an intricate Compass Rose indicating that the center is located at 25°28' N., 80°20' W, or about 292 miles south of my home (28°78' N., 81°25' W). Florida is a very big place. From Key West to Pensacola is about a 15 hour drive
at 70 mph (113 kilometers per hour).
at 70 mph (113 kilometers per hour).
Above: My foot for scale at the center of the Compass Rose mosiac.
A boardwalk goes far out onto Convoy Point, considered one of South Florida's best windsurfing locations. Toward the easternmost end of the point the boardwalk ends and one walks along coral pathways (below).
In the mangroves and other scrub there was a wealth of wildlife, like these curious and (for some) uncomfortably large Rat Snakes (Pantherophis alleghaniensis). Rat snakes are also referred to coloquially as "Chicken Snakes," "Yellow Rat Snakes," and "Everglades Rat Snakes."
The image below became one of my entries in the "Share the Experience" Photo contest that ran through 2015.
Below: My finger for scale. The snake's head was about the size of my index finger which was closer to the camera and thus appears somewhat larger.
Below: This snake was at least 5-feet long (1½ meters).
Below: Click on the image for a larger view of a huge school of Black Striped Mullet (Mugil cephalus). Mullet are common table fare and are used as bait for larger sport fish. Mullet range from 8 to 12 inches in length and can be found in large schools in inshore coastal regions such as bays, estuaries and freshwater environments. They feed on algae, small crustaceans, and detritus.
History of Biscayne Bay
Although Biscayne National Park was established for its natural history, signs of people and the many ways they have used these lands and waters is everywhere. Nearly every island in the park has evidence of use by native peoples. Underwater, shipwrecks rest as silent witnesses to one violent moment in time, each holding the promise of teaching us about our collective past; A Tequesta Indian man free-dives for conch from a dugout canoe. A Bahamian woman watches the sunset across a tidal creek after a hard day's work. A ship grinds against a knife-edged reef while a violent wind howls. Wealthy industrialists gather under a shady palm to toss horseshoes. The parade of human history in Biscayne National Park spans 10,000 years.
I like the way these Florida Thatch Palms (Thrinax radiata) are mixed in with the Orange Geiger Trees throughout the park.
If you look closely at the image above (click on it for a larger view) there are many fish in the water. I liked the image because it looked like a water color.
Elliott Key and other islands in Biscayne National Park were settled under the Homestead Act of 1862. This law gave free land to settlers willing to live on and farm a piece of land for five years. The main crops planted here were pineapples and key limes. Today one finds only solitude and large coral stones used as breakwaters and decorative features in pathways.
A Place on the Edge
As you walk on this trail, you stand on the threshold of a different world. Here, on the brink of a continent, Biscayne National Park's aquamarine waters, emerald islands and fish-bejeweled reefs provide glimpses of treasures more valuable than the gold in the Spanish ships that once plied these waters.
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| The walkway preserves coral boulders, mangroves grow at the water's edge, coconut palms on the higher ground and a grove of orange geiger trees in the distance, all framed by an intricate coral retaining wall. Spectacular! |
Its a place where the blue of the sky and the blue of the bay melt into one another. Its a place where red-rooted trees march into the sea, and sea turtles lumber ashore to lay their eggs. Its a place where (hopefully) people leave civilization behind and plunge into an underwater wonderland. Its a place on the edge.
Sounds too utopian, and of course it is. Of the few tourists we encountered several were talking loudly on cell phones while tossing trash into the bay, one was scratching a lotto ticket which was discarded onto a lawn, a couple were trying to hide the fact that they were drinking out of paper bags. Hummm. . . still, it could've been worse. There could have been more people doing more disrespectful things.
The park protect's one of the most extensive coral reef tracts in the world, the longest stretch of mangrove forest on the east coast, the clear, shallow waters of Biscayne Bay, and the northernmost Florida Keys.
Up next: Monkey Jungle
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