This tiny Florida Keys island has three beaches, a climbable old railroad bridge, and once won best beach in America

It’s been the country’s best beach

Bahia Honda State Park sits on a 524-acre island in the lower Florida Keys, right at Mile Marker 37 on the Overseas Highway. The Atlantic Ocean lines one side.

Florida Bay lines the other. Water surrounds you no matter which direction you look.

The name goes back to Spanish explorers in the 1500s, and it translates to “deep bay.” They got that right.

Between the beaches, the old railroad bridge, and the snorkeling, there’s more packed onto this island than you’d expect from a single state park. The history alone is worth the drive.

Henry Flagler’s railroad met its match here

In the early 1900s, Henry Flagler pushed his Overseas Railroad from mainland Florida all the way to Key West. The channel at Bahia Honda gave his engineers fits.

The water ran so deep they couldn’t use concrete arches like the rest of the line, so they built steel trusses instead.

The railroad opened in 1912 and lasted just 23 years before the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 tore it apart. Florida later put a highway on top of the old trusses because the original rail bed was too narrow for cars.

Three beaches share one small island

You get three beaches here, and each one faces different water.

Sandspur is the biggest, stretching along the southeast end with white sand and shallow water facing the Atlantic. Loggerhead Beach also faces the Atlantic and stays gentle enough for families with small kids.

Calusa is the smallest, sitting on the Florida Bay side with calm water and a straight-on view of the Old Bahia Honda Bridge. All three are fully open again after years of restoration following Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Sandspur Beach earned a title no Florida beach had before

Back in 1992, Dr. Beach named Sandspur the number one beach in the entire United States. No Florida beach had ever earned that ranking before.

The sand here is natural, which sets it apart from most Keys beaches that are man-made. The shoreline drops off gradually into warm, shallow water.

You might notice seagrass washed up along the tide line. The park leaves it there on purpose because it plays a key role in the coastal ecosystem.

Walk on top of the old bridge for a view of two oceans

A short trail of about 0.4 miles round-trip takes you up onto a section of the Old Bahia Honda Bridge.

It’s one of the highest points in the entire Florida Keys, and from the top, you can see the island, the Atlantic, and Florida Bay all at once.

The old highway deck still sits on top of the steel trusses, a leftover from the bridge’s second life as a road. Look down and you’ll spot fish, sea turtles, and rays in the clear water below.

Snorkel in four feet of water right off the sand

Some of the best nearshore snorkeling in the Florida Keys sits just a few hundred feet from Bahia Honda’s beaches.

The water only runs about four to six feet deep, so you don’t need experience or a boat to see what’s down there.

Soft corals, small coral heads, tropical fish, queen conchs, and spiny lobster all show up in the shallows. If you didn’t bring your own gear, the park’s concession area rents masks, fins, and snorkels.

A 35-minute boat ride to one of the Keys’ great reefs

The park runs daily boat trips to Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, named after the HMS Looe, a British warship that sank there in 1744.

The ride takes about 35 minutes each way, and you get roughly an hour and a half of snorkel time at the reef. Looe Key is a spur-and-groove system with more than 50 species of coral and over 150 species of fish.

Depths range from 5 feet to 70 feet, so it works for beginners and experienced divers alike.

Silver palms and rare plants line the nature trail

More than 150 plant species grow on the island, and several of them are rare or endangered. Bahia Honda holds one of the largest remaining stands of Florida silver palms in the country.

The Silver Palm Nature Trail is a 0.6-mile loop through a tropical hardwood hammock filled with gumbo limbo, poisonwood, sea grapes, and Jamaica dogwood.

Near Loggerhead Beach, the Wings and Waves Butterfly Garden pulls in species like Martial Scrub-Hairstreaks and Malachites. Yellow satinwood and the endangered small-flowered lily thorn also grow here.

One of North America’s rarest butterflies came back here

The Miami blue butterfly was thought to be extinct for nearly a decade after Hurricane Andrew wiped it out in 1992. Then in 1999, researchers found it alive at Bahia Honda.

That population died out by 2010, but in 2019, the Florida Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and University of Florida launched a captive breeding program at the park.

Early results looked good, with released butterflies reproducing in the wild. Spotting one is not guaranteed, but the effort continues.

Low tide pulls in dozens of shorebird species

Bahia Honda sits on the Great Florida Birding Trail, and the shallow sand flats at low tide draw crowds of shorebirds. Ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, plovers, and short-billed dowitchers work the wet sand.

Great white herons, great blue herons, tricolored herons, great egrets, and white ibis wade through the shallows. In summer, endangered white-crowned pigeons feed in the poisonwood trees.

From mid-September to mid-November, hawks pass overhead and more than 30 warbler species move through during fall migration.

Sea turtles nest on these beaches every summer

Loggerhead and green sea turtles nest on Bahia Honda’s beaches, and during summer months you might spot tracks or roped-off nesting areas in the sand.

The water around the island holds Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, rays, barracuda, nurse sharks, and manatees.

Ghost crabs scuttle across the sand at dusk and dawn, so keep your eyes low when you walk the beach in the evening.

Inside the park, the Sand and Sea Nature Center has live displays with corals, crabs, sea urchins, and sponges.

Campsites and cabins book up almost a year out

The park runs 75 campsites across three campgrounds. Buttonwood handles larger RVs and has waterfront spots with views of the marina and bridge.

Sandspur campground sits near the beach and works better for tents and smaller rigs.

Bayside has eight primitive tent-only sites, but your vehicle has to clear a bridge with only six feet eight inches of overhead clearance to reach them. Six stilted cabins overlook the bay.

These reservations are among the most competitive in the entire Florida state park system, so book early.

Visit Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys

You can find Bahia Honda State Park at 36850 Overseas Highway, Big Pine Key, about 12 miles south of Marathon and 37 miles north of Key West. The park stays open 365 days a year from 8 a.m. to sundown.

Entry runs $8 per vehicle for up to eight people, or $2.50 for pedestrians and cyclists. Reservations open 11 months in advance through the Florida State Parks reservation system.

Pets on a leash of six feet or less are welcome in the park but not on the beaches or in the cabins.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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