Traveling east on Tamiami Trail on our way home from a tour with Coopertown Airboats, my fella and I decided to head straight over to Key Biscayne to see what we could see. I found Historic Virginia Key Beach Park by accident while following jacked up smartphone directions to Crandon Gardens, which we didn’t even end up going to because we ran out of time. Instead, we took a stroll around this lesser-traveled area and discovered what I consider to be a gem.
clay-like sand, shells, driftwood, restored hammock, and the rickenbacker causeway in the background
We entered near the NOAA lab on Virginia Beach Dr and parked at the end of the road, past the bike rentals and concession.
The beach isn’t pristine white sand with sunbathers. It’s covered with shells. Trees are rooted along the shoreline. Some areas of sand are thick and feel like clay with striations from creek water running from the hammock to the bay. The beach itself runs along a 15-acre hammock that’s undergoing restoration, so it felt quite secluded.
When we reached the end, we followed a path to the main walkway and walked further into the hammock.
There are small bridges over the mangrove-lined creek with perfectly clear 2-3 inch deep water below.
One of the bridges led to another parking lot and access point (off of Arthur Lamb Jr Road according to the map).
And another bridge led to the beach swimming area, which had much smoother sand, picnic areas nestled in the trees, and a view of cruise ships in the distance.
I plan to come back here and do a bit more exploring. There are bike paths, more walking trails, a little train, an enormous sand castle (in Guinness Book of World Records, I forgot to take a picture!) and many cute sandpipers.
As the sun started setting, we drove back to the causeway and parked on the west side to eat sandwiches on the beach and watch the sun set.
Address:
4020 Virginia Beach Drive
Key Biscayne FL 33149
More info:
World’s Largest Sand Castle on Virginia Key
