Fla Keys campgrounds vanishing

[63air]

Just got back from a nice trip to the Keys and found out my favorite spot Fiesta Key KOA is about to be gobbled up by the condo boys to the tune of 90 million plus. Also Camp America in Largo and Knights Key in Marathon are meeting the same fate. What a loss for RV ers. If you are head south call before you go because your spot might be gone. Some of my friends in the Keys say the only things that will save the Keys are a big hurricane or hopefully a big rise in the interest rates.

[JimGolden]

Well that is just terrible. I've never been to the Keys, always wanted to, and was hoping to take the silver palace down there once I get her roadworthy. And to hear this??!! Man that's just bogus!

[SafeHarbor]

I'm with Jim on this. I always thought that I would eventually visit the Keys, but I'm not the typical millionaire Airstream owner.

Then again, it's bad that it will take a major storm aimed at the Keys to reverse this trend.

Lamar

[Pick]

This coming hurricane season is supposed to be just as bad as last year. The trend may continue for the next 20 to 30 years. But, hey after the condos are sold the investors will have made their profit, and will have left town, what do they care? I think some folks think that "well, a couple of bad years, worst is over, can't happen again."

In Mississippi they now have to build 800 feet behind the high tide line.

[ZoominC6]

WOW, that's bad news indeed, however; not surprising. We enjoyed our stay at Fiesta Key a couple of winters ago but thought Bahia Honda State Park would be a paradise of a spot. I guess now we'll have to reserve a spot a year in advance to get in there. Bummer.

[pmclemore]

Page and I just returned from the Keys and found things not so bad. We stayed at Boyd's Key West campground - and had not made reservations more than a few days beforehand. There are some other private campgrounds farther back up the keys as well. We used the Trailer Life book to find places.

We were on a kind of "survey" trip, meant more to stay a few days at several places in FL in order to skip most of Feb at home in VA. We did that successfully, spending about three weeks seeing as much of FL as we could. I think if we go back, we will try for one of the state parks, but that would mean planning far in advance. I'm not so good at planning.

Pat

[Coloradobus]

The trend for Hurricane severity according to the Paleo-Climatologists is to be worse. They have determined by core sampling around the Gulf, the cycle for hurricanes is on a 12-1500 year cycle. We are concluding what they say is a period of relative calm. The projections told the SE US and Gulf Coast will be uninhabitable for year round living within a 150 years.

[BOBHASTINGS]

ZoominC6,


Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys always has been tough to get into! Voted the best beach in the Keys (before the last 3 hurricanes put all that beautiful beach sand back into the Atlantic ). BH really is one of our favorites. It’s located about 2/3 of the way down the Keys west of Marathon. This gives you a reasonable drive both to Key West and to a ‘large’ island (Marathon) with grocery, movie, restaurants, etc.

Of the 3 campgrounds in the Park, only Buttonwood can handle large RVs. Sandspur on the Atlantic shore side might be able to take a Bambi. Bayside has a height restriction that probably would prevent ANY AS because you have to drive UNDER the bridge to get to that side. None of the campgrounds provide any shade to speak of.


You LITERALLY have to sign on to www.reserveamerica.com at EXACTLY 7:59AM EXACTLY 1 year from the day you wish to arrive in order to have even a tiny chance of getting a reservation!!! No exaggeration!!! Sure, we have hit it lucky in past years by trying for reservations as late as 1 month before arrival but we just happened to hit the reservation system at the exact second that someone else had canceled! I recommend persistence as the answer.

[Jim Jarzabek]

CONDO KEYS!

That is right folks.......

Can't afford a condominium?

Timeshare in a condiminium just too expensive for you?

You say you just can't afford even a resale timeshare?

Then, the CONDO KEY is what you need!

With the condo key on your keyring you can PRETEND you can still AFFORD go to South Florida......


(Void where prohibited by law. Some restrictions apply. Supplies are limited. Not for sale in Guam, Virginia, or the Straits of Gibraltar).

[ZoominC6]

Bob,

I had the feeling that you'd have to hit it just right with those reservations but what a paradise of a spot! Now if I can remember to make the attempt.

BTW, love that avitar.

[ITowSilver]

Jabour's campground in downtown Key West also closed last year to make way for a development.

[maxandgeorgia]

We'll begin that dance to secure a campsite at one of the state parks in the Keys in the morning. Wish us luck Rich, paved South Florida, especially Naples and Marco Island where our friends live, was a real turn off to us, but after our recent survey trip, we're dying to spend a couple of weeks on the beach in our Airstream and we're willing to plan our trip around THEIR available days. Setting the alarm for 7:59! ~G

[Tinsel Loaf]

A lot of parks are turning into condos. The tax base makes it hard to keep parks in populated and popular places. The owners are really forced to sell because the city fathers would rather have the taxes from condos than travel trailers.

[maxandgeorgia]

Setting the alarm for 7:59! ~G

Ha! Remember that thread called "Dumb A. . . ." Well, here's another one, on us. Sure enough, we placed our call at 7:59 this morning to make a reservation. . .forgetting the time change. Yeh, camp sites were already gone, to people savvy enough to make their call at the right time for Eastern Time. So. . .we'll try tomorrow, making our call at 6:59. . .we need a lot of positive vibes here, friends ~G

[LuminumTraila]

Originally Posted by maxandgeorgia

Setting the alarm for 7:59! ~G

Ha! Remember that thread called "Dumb A. . . ." Well, here's another one, on us. Sure enough, we placed our call at 7:59 this morning to make a reservation. . .forgetting the time change. Yeh, camp sites were already gone, to people savvy enough to make their call at the right time for Eastern Time. So. . .we'll try tomorrow, making our call at 6:59. . .we need a lot of positive vibes here, friends ~G

maxandgeorgia -- Did you ever get a reservation? We'd like to travel down to the Keys sometime and we're wondering how you made out in finding a place?

-d&j

[maxandgeorgia]

Sigh I am not one to easily give up, but after nearly three weeks in a row of sitting on the phone from 6:59 to whenever a party on the other end of the line would answer to explain that NO sites were available a year and a day from now for the Long Key SP we wanted to visit in February or March next year, I. . .gave up. I guess we'll just remember how beautiful it was and ;know it is just for other people. We surely are not the ones who will be allowed to camp there. Good luck. If you find a way to secure a site, please let us know! ~G

[maxandgeorgia]

To continue the post above: We just had our hearts set on Long Key. Obviously from the other posts in this thread, there are other possibly private campgrounds in the Keys. We drove into some, but they always seemed to be packed in long rectangles filling in space from the highway to the water, with only two or three actual campsites on water. If anyone knows in particular of a great Keys campground that is not PACKED in tight and that does offer sites on the water, please post here for dougjamie and us so that we can have our Florida Keys vacations in our Airstreams As you can see, I really have given up on the statepark system of making reservations. ~G

[Chaplain Kent]

We went to the Keys on our maiden voyage when we bought our Tradewind. From the sound of these posts I am glad we had the experience. We stayed at a private campground, which is now a development. The trailers were packed in like sardines. I remember as a newbie having to back in with a few feet clearance on each side. Then the units on each side of us dwarfed our Little 25' trailer. Fortunately we had our bikes and could ride down to a State park beach a couple miles away.
On our way down we stayed in a town, Everglades City and really liked it. There were no crowds but no beach. I wonder if the time will come when Florida is all concrete.

[squrlgurl]

Ok, I'll tell y'all about it since I REALLY like you guys....
I just got back from a boat trip thru the keys with some friends and discovered a brand new RV park on the ocean. Curry Hammock State park. 28 sites. $35 a night. Beautiful. Here's a link to a picture I shot of it as we left the anchorage. http://www.flickr.com/photos/1407896...7594082426936/

Also, more pics of the area to se how beautiful it is :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1407896...7594082426936/

I spoke witha fellow who was camping there and he said that reservations were becoming filled, so try a few months in advance.

I am bummed that Lazy Lakes got sucked into developer oblivion. It was the oldest park in the keys (Sugarloaf).

-Tracey

[n2916s]

I live in Miami and have watched the changes in the Keys with dismay for years now. It isn't just that the land that the campgrounds sit on is so valuable, it's the development rights. Building permits in the Keys are very hard to come by unless you are replacing something that has a similar environmental impact. Sewer systems in the Keys are few and far between (although they are working on it). A lot of sewage is simply dumped in cess pits (which tend to leak into the groundwater and thence out to sea) some is semi-treated and pumped offshore. So if you go to the powers that be and say your going to put 100 condos on the footprint that had 180 RV spaces, you get a building permit.

The State Parks, Pennekamp, Long Key, Bahia Honda are almost impossible to get into -- Miamians camp out on the Reserve America web site and scarf up all the weekends the second they are available. I live here and have never gotten into any of them! We actually stopped at Long Key and talked to the rangers and they said they see 90% of the same campers week-in and week-out. The other downside to the State Parks is no pets.

The fact is, the Keys are rapidly becoming unaccessible to RV's. Soon, even the mom + pop motel/resorts will be gone.

Kind of a shame but, then again, there is lots of Old Florida left, it's a big place and they haven't paved it all over........


mike