Away from the reef, Key Largo is a last refuge. The Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park protects one of the largest tracts of West Indian tropical hardwood hammock in the continental United States — home of the Key Largo woodrat, found nowhere else on Earth — and the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center nurses pelicans and herons back to the sky. On the bay side, the island opens onto Florida Bay and the Everglades: Key Largo is the rare town with a national park to its west and America's first undersea park to its east.
The farming century is the island's least-remembered chapter. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, Key Largo grew pineapples and key limes for northern markets, and mule wagons hauled the crop to packing houses by the landings. The little settlement at the island's heart went by Rock Harbor — a name that would last until Hollywood intervened. Hurricanes, competition, and blight wound the plantations down, but the key lime never left the Keys; it just moved from the groves into the pie.
Why People Visit Key Largo Florida
- Snorkel or dive John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park — America's first undersea park — by glass-bottom boat, snorkel tour, or scuba charter.
- Descend to the Christ of the Abyss off Key Largo Dry Rocks, or dive Molasses Reef and the wrecks beyond.
- Ride the actual African Queen — the 1912 steam launch from the 1951 film — on a canal cruise.
- Sleep underwater at Jules' Undersea Lodge, the world's first underwater hotel.
- Walk the hardwood hammock at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, and visit the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center.
- Kayak the mangroves into Florida Bay, or day-trip west to Everglades National Park.
- End every day the Keys way: a sunset cruise and a slice of key lime pie.
