Visiting Biscayne National Park

As someone who loves being in the water, I was very excited about visiting Biscayne National Park. I planned to spend an entire day at the park and picked out the Biscayne National Park Institute adventure we were going to sign up for.

But then… I realized we had enough time to visit Dry Tortugas on this trip to Florida. And, I opted to make that happen assuming that visiting Biscayne would be the easier of the two parks to visit at another time.

I loved our Dry Tortugas experience, and am happy with that decision. But, I do wish we had time to get on the water in Biscayne. Instead, we visited two places that didn’t require a boat.

 

Dante Fascell Visitor Center

As always, we checked out the visitor center and stamped our National Park passport book. Our time was limited and I preferred to be outside, so we didn’t spend much time exploring inside the visitor center.

 

🗺️GEOCACHING TIP
 There is a geocache hidden outside the visitor center

 

Outside the visitor center is a short, flat trail. It starts as a boardwalk and then turns to gravel. We really enjoyed our time walking along the Convoy Point Jetty Trail. We searched for critters in the water and saw schools of fish, birds, and even spotted a manatee. It would have been amazing to rent a kayak and meander along the Black Point Paddling Trail, which starts/ends at the visitor center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Point Park & Marina

A few miles north of the visitor center is Black Point Park and Marina. It is a large marina in Homestead, just south of Miami, with access to Biscayne Bay. Across the bay are the keys and sand bars marking the northern most section of the Florida Keys.

From here, we walked along the Black Point Jetty Trail. Once we crossed the point where the jetty juts out into the bay we passed a sign noting that we had entered Biscayne National Park.

 

 

 

 

Before walking on the jetty, we enjoyed a lovely meal at Black Point Ocean Grill. It was a perfect evening to sit outside and gaze out at the canal. In truth, I was searching for manatees – but never saw one.

 

We spent two, separate, short trips exploring some of the 5% of Biscayne National Park that is land. It’s not the ideal way to experience this park, but for those of us from the Pacific NW visiting anywhere in south Florida is going to be an adventure.

 

If you get a chance to get on the water, here are a few experiences that sound fun:

Guided kayak tour of the mangroves

Camping at Boca Chita Key

Hike a short section of the Spite Highway Trail on Elliott Key

Snorkeling & Paddleboarding Guided Adventure – this sounds dreamy and is the one I intended to do

Boat tour of Stiltsville and more

 

 

Check out the 4 day itinerary that visits all 3 National Parks in South Florida >>>