Mound Key is located in the middle of the water & the only way to get there is by a water vessel. This is something I learned the hard way when my GPS tried to turn my car into a boat. Once I realized what the journey entailed, I made an action plan. My friend George was willing to take this adventure with me so we set a date to meet up. I woke up before the sun and headed down to meet George at his parents house, near Lover’s Key, which is where we needed to rent & launch our kayak from. George graciously paid for our tandem kayak. I was thankful because he paid & because I wasn’t going to have to ride in a kayak by myself.
I will admit, I was a little worried about our kayak excursion, at first. When you think of two people having a kayaking adventure, George and I would not be the two that would come to your mind. We saddled up the tandem kayak and set our course. This was only the second time I sat on a kayak and the first time I only touched the paddle to put it in the boat. George did most of the paddling and within an hour we made it to the southside of Mound Key. We followed the trail until we spotted a sign that said no trespassing with a barbed-wire fence around it so we turned around and got back in the kayak.
George then looked on his phone & discovered there was a north entrance so we headed in that direction, in search of a state park sign to confirm we were in the right place. With perseverance we found what we were looking for. Behind the sign was a trail and we followed it, anxious to see where it would lead. Wouldn’t you know, it led us right to the same spot we turned around at just moments before! It was really cool to explore the mound but it’s still a bit icky to me to walk on the remains of so many Native Americans food waste.
In the beginning of my State Parking adventures, when I discovered that some state parks were only accessible by boat, I grumbled a lot because I found that to be too much work. After going to Mound Key, I am really happy that we got to experience the kayak trip to the mound and back to the shore on such a beautiful, rain free day.
Before you visit, make sure you check out the parks website for all of the up-to-date park information: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/mound-key-archaeological-state-park
