Then suddenly around 4pm with just about an hour and a half of daylight left, the sky to the north changed from the blue color it had been all day, to a pearl-grey.   There was a clear horizontal line low in the sky, which kept moving closer.  At first I thought it was a rainstorm moving in, and the line was the bottom of the rain cloud.  You could see a color line on the water too, just below the line of pearl gray color.

At this time, we were at the Western Dry Rocks, which has a stick.  The stick became difficult to see as the lines came closer, and I realized it wasn’t rain but fog.  Within minutes the stick was no longer visible and, afraid the snorkelers would soon also disappear, I got everyone in the boat and we all headed home.  It was foggy all the way home, and not until we were very close to Key West could we make out the beach at Fort Zachary State Park.

There was a wedding at the State Park, taking wedding photos, I guess.  And the sunset celebration, which should have been in full swing, looked sparsely attended.  The sunset cruise boats were drifting really slowly around the harbor, staying close in with their sweatshirt-clad passengers.  Bummer sunset!

Located on the south side of the island of Key West, Higgs Beach begins around the White Street Pier, winds along the edge to the West Martello Tower then opens up again to Higgs Beach part two, ending at Casa Marina.  At this point, the beach is closed off, and becomes Casa Marina resort’s private area.  After that is some military beach, then Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.

Higgs Beach includes Salute!, a restaurant serving Italian food al fresco facing the beach.  Nice.  There’s a raised platform for morning yoga fans, picnic tables shaded by palm trees, and yes worth mentioning again, free parking right next to the sand.  Not much, but some spots for beach-goers who choose this over Smathers beach.

There’s a second pier, not as large as the one at the end of White Street, that’s fun to walk out onto.  You can look back at the beach or over to West Martello Tower.  One of the pictures below shows that view.

It was really nice day and my girlfriend had the day off, so we took the boat out to the reef to do some snorkeling. We decided to hit the main snorkeling spot since we had only been there once and it was when the water was not really clear. We brought the underwater camera with us. We attached to a mooring buoy as the fury boat was leaving and jumped in.

Sand Key Light House

We had a goal to swim to the tower and check it out but we didn’t make it, The water is shallow for quite awhile and it kind of boring up in there. We snorkel a lot and have snorkeled all over the reef between Key West and the Marquesas Keys. So perhaps stuff that is kind of boring to us would be exciting for someone visiting. Up the shallows its mostly just kind of flat rock with some tangs, surgeon fish and parrot fish scooting about. All the sea life seemed to be in the deeper water around the moorings. Under the moorings there was a huge school of yellow tail snapper, barracuda, mahogany snappers, parrot fish and a bunch of other life.

Surgeon Fish

There was a lot of fish but not a lot of live coral. My girlfriend is all about the live coral and she was kind of disappointed with the area. I am more into viewing the fish and there was a lot of them so I liked it. I would say the area is very good of someone new to snorkeling because in a short distance you can be in really shallow water or deeper water depending on what you are into. Personally I think I found eastern dry rocks more impressive the sand key. Although we only explored a small section of the sanctuary.

A seven foot pie

Next we went to the waterfront to view the bloody battle. Ships cruised the harbor spraying water into the water. Yeah, don’t really know what spraying water into the water was doing. From what I understand there used to be a big water and fruit fight on the water between boats. My neighbors have lived here forever and used to participate in the battle until the water sports company he worked for was banned from it. He says it used to be very rowdy, but it’s not anymore. In fact I didn’t see any of the boats hit each other with any fruit or even water. Although due to the crowd I couldn’t see everything.

Bloody Battle?

People dressed up in period military outfits fired cannons off of Mallory Square . WOW are they loud. It was kind of awesome actually watching the crowd shudder with each blast. You could just feel the vibrations running through you. To add to the scene bi-planes where overhead dropping “bombs” of toilet paper which created giant streamers sailing down on to the crowd and the harbor.

Boom!

The usual vendors and performers whre present at Mallory Square and the usual performances looked like they were starting on time. There was also some new silver people. There was also a lady dressed up as a sunburned tourist complete with red skin and fanny packs. This didn’t really look like it was a big crowd pleaser.

Mallory Square Vendor

Local Flavor

Picnic Benches over looking harbor

There is a bike path around the park, although in some areas you are supposed to walk your bike. Some of the sculptures were kind of disappointing, they look like something you could make yourself. There is a big metal “if” painted yellow, and a big circle made out of driftwood. By the water there are 4 squares with some reflective stuff in them. There is also a house outline made of metal. My favorite ones were some furniture made out of musical instruments.

Shiny Squares

IF

The circle of driftwood

Musical Chairs

A bunch of driftwood stuck in a tree with a wind chime, don't strain yourself artist

A gome head?

Even if some of the sculptures weren’t that impressive the beach is. I think it’s by far the nicest beach in Key West. The small entrance fee keeps out the sand bums and it is clean and large. There are plenty of picnic tables and great ocean views. You can watch the boats go in and out of the harbor while you are there. There is a jetty and there is fishing allowed on the west edge of the park. With all the current and the rocks there, there are probably some decent fish.

Fishing section

As you can see we  took a bunch of photos. The only negative of the experience was a morbidly obese park ranger in a golf cart gave us hard time because apparently Catherine leaned her bike against the base of a native tree. We didn’t let it bother us. There is also a snack bar and an umbrella and chair rental station. I think the chair and umbrella rental was $30, what a bargain!  We decided against renting one.

Beach Section