The Florida Keys | Lee Smith Photography

Concrete Barge aground off Key Largo

photo by Lee Smith

You see some strange things when you are visiting and not from an area, like this concrete barge that was run aground in shallow water off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. The water clarity is good for a high traffic boat channel – it’s right off the channel. People kayak and snorkel around the barge to find tropical fish, invertebrates and an occasional lobster. It’s about 10ft deep but this barge clearly sticks out of the water.

(Click on the image for a larger view)

Key Largo Concrete Barge - 0884 — Key Largo Concrete Barge – 0884

Carysfort Reef Lighthouse – Key Largo

Photo by Lee Smith

When you drive a few miles out to sea and find a structure like a lighthouse – I always wonder how the heck they built that thing. It is unmanned, but still functions being the oldest existing screw-pile lighthouse still in service in the United States – located off the coast of Key Largo, Florida

For more information about the Caryfort Reef Lighthouse

(Click on the image for a larger view)

Carysfort Reef Light - 0830 — Carysfort Reef Light – 0830

Carysfort Reef Lighthouse - 0832 — Carysfort Reef Lighthouse – 0832

A Lone Mangrove – Key Largo, FL

Photo by Lee Smith

I walked in the shallows around a mangrove covered island off Key largo, Florida and found this lone Mangrove growing away from the island. (Photo taken in 2012)

Key Largo Mangrove Tree - 7D-2012-_0852 — Key Largo Mangrove Tree – 7D-2012-_0852

Key Largo Mangrove Tree - 7D-2012-_0838 — Key Largo Mangrove Tree – 7D-2012-_0838

Key Largo Mangrove Tree - 0851 — Key Largo Mangrove Tree – 0851

Key Largo Mangrove Island - 0842 - 7D 2012 — Key Largo Mangrove Island – 0842 – 7D 2012

Sunrise in Key Largo

(yes, this was a sunrise, with extreme dark filters)

Life will find a way – Islamorada

Walking along a path lined with small mangrove trees on the bay in Islamorada, I was amazed of how these mangroves can grow in the most inhospitable conditions. Islamorada, a “Village of Islands,” is an incorporated village in Monroe County, Florida

Founders Park, Islamorada, FL – IMG_8451_2_3-BW

The Marvin Adams Waterway, Key Largo, Florida

Visitors drive across this bridge on highway U.S. 1 – located about mile marker 103.6. The vertical walls rise about 15 feet high and the local boaters refer to it as “the Cut”. It took a year-and-a-half to complete the half-mile cut in 1961 with a temporary bridge on the bayside. Twelve years later, a four lane highway bridge was built. Interesting story – http://www.keyshistory.org/thecut.html