Key West

Key West

Camping at Boyd’s Campground on Key West

What do a routine doctor’s visit, Key West, and scoring a great campsite have in common?

At my yearly physical, when the doctor asked how my life was going, I excitedly relayed my news of buying an RV and planning our first trip to Florida. My doctor seemed as excited as I was, and told me that she frequents Key West and asked if we were going there.

“No,” I replied, because it wasn’t even on my radar to go that far. Besides, from what I’d heard, it was basically impossible to get a campsite there.

She grabbed her pen and a Post It note, and wrote the word Boyd’s on it. “One of my other patients camps here at Key West and she just raves about it. You should give it a try.”

I accepted the paper and a welcome clean bill of health, and continued on with my day.

A few days later, I remembered our conversation, and out of curiosity, googled Boyd’s. It did look really nice…maybe we should go to the Keys. I mean, we would be as far south on the mainland of Florida that we could get – why not try to go all the way? It doesn’t cost anything to try.

So, I figured out what day we would be leaving the Everglades and gave Boyd’s a call. I couldn’t believe it when she said they had a site available for two nights! It was absolutely unbelievable! I booked the two nights on the spot.

As it turns out, trying really doesn’t cost a thing, but camping at Boyd’s sure does! It was slightly over $ 200 a night.  In our pre-RV days, I had spent that on a hotel room for one night in our travels, and maybe even a little more in some primo locations. But it was the most-costly of any campground we had encountered so far. It’s all about location, location, location, as they say.

Key West is a primo location, so even though it was stretching our budget, I knew it was fate that they had a site for us on the exact days we wanted to be there. You don’t mess with fate.

As we started across the Overseas Highway to Key West, we were speechless – no, I shouldn’t say that. We kept saying, “Wow!”

The colors of the water were the most beautiful we’d ever seen. A patchwork of blues, greens, aquamarine, teal, turquoise…as far as the eye could see.

The Overseas Highway

US Rt 1, the Overseas Highway, is a 113-mile trek from Miami through the Keys, all the way out to Mile Marker 0 in Key West.

During the Florida land boom in the 1920’s the only way to get out to Key West was by boat or train. Millionaire, Henry Flagler, had built the Key West Over-Sea Railroad, which was completed in 1912, to get goods and passengers from Miami to Key West. The Miami Motor Club was instrumental in creating the idea to attract tourists to visit the Keys by automobile, so the idea for a highway was born.

It was the time of the depression, and a group of WWI Veterans were hired to work on the highway as part of a government relief program. Tragically, on Labor Day, September 2, 1935, a hurricane destroyed almost all of their work, as well as taking over 400 lives. Over half of those were lives of the Veterans and their families.  To this day, remnants of their work – eight concrete bridge piers and a dredged island, which is called Veterans Key – remain as a tribute to those Veterans.

Also destroyed in this hurricane was much of the Key West Over-Seas Railroad. Because of financial hardship, it was never rebuilt, and later sold to the state of Florida for $ 640,000. The Seven Mile Bridge for automobiles was then constructed using the former right of way and foundation of this railroad.

Because of deterioration, that original Seven Mile Bridge is now only open to pedestrian traffic. It sits beside the modern Overseas Highway- the one we drove over – which was completed in 1982.

Boyd’s Campground

It took us a while to drive all the way out to Key West, but you won’t hear any complaints from us. With such breathtaking scenery, it could have taken all day and we wouldn’t have minded.

Finally, we arrived at Boyd’s and pulled up in front of the office.

Boyd’s is a family-owned campground. Key West captured the hearts of Canadians, Boyd and Elsie Hamilton, when they were in search of a warm place to spend their winters.  After one winter, they returned and made Key West their permanent home. They purchased the land and opened their campground in 1963. It has been in the family ever since.

 First impression was that it seemed the inland sites looked a bit tight – campers pretty close together. But that would be ok. Keep in mind, location, location, location – and we were on Key West!

An escort showed us to our site. Wait – what!? We have a water view??? I don’t know how we lucked out with that site, but we hit the jackpot!

We were backed right up to the canal with a dock right behind us. This was a little piece of heaven. The beautiful fountain at the entry had a sign saying “Welcome to Paradise”. I should have known.

Mile Marker Zero

As much as we would have loved to just stay at the campground and soak in all that paradise, we also wanted to go to the farthest point south, and that required leaving.

We discovered that it was not advisable to take our Class C RV into town as it would be a driving and parking nightmare. The staff at the office was so helpful, and even called a taxi for us. Our other choice was to rent a golf cart. That would have been fun, and seemed to be what most people use to get around here. But for the same price, we got the taxi and were dropped off right at the marker for the Southernmost Point in the Continental US.

It was pretty thrilling to actually be standing in the spot that I’ve seen in so many other pictures. Just 90 miles from Cuba.

Ernest Hemingway’s House and Museum

After our must-do photo shoot, we continued to explore the famous Duval Street. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and of course, key lime pie at Banana Café.

Next, we found Ernest Hemingway’s Home and Museum, a National Historic Landmark. He lived on Key West in the 1930’s, and his life story is fascinating. Quite a thrill to see the study where he wrote some of his novels. It was easy to imagine him sitting at the typewriter, and I swear I could feel his presence there.

The story goes that a ship captain gifted Ernest Hemingway a polydactyl cat (one with six toes or more). The house is now full of cats, most of them polydactyl, and some of them are descendants of that original cat. The felines are celebrated and treated royally. You will see them everywhere in and outside of the house. They are living their best lives.

We continued down Duval Street and poked our heads into Sloppy Joe’s, a bar that Ernest Hemingway frequented.

Duval Street has a beachy vibe, a street lined with shops and restaurants, and I’d imagine it’s really hopping after dark.

Why did the rooster cross the road? Because he’s in Key West! Chickens and roosters have free reign here, and it’s not unusual to see them strolling down the sidewalk with you. Some of these are descendants of the original chickens brought here from Cuba long ago.

Cocktails and Sunsets

It was late afternoon by the time we found ourselves at the end of Duval Street at the Sunset Pier. Although we were too early for the sunset, we did enjoy the spectacular water views and sipping cocktails as we listened to live guitar music. It was magical.

Sunsets are an event at Key West and celebrated in a big way. However, we had a beautiful campsite to get back to, so decided to call our taxi and check out our own sunset.

We were not disappointed.

Sunset…Sunrise…

On our final morning, I woke up early. I walked around the campground and was treated to nothing short of a miraculous sunrise! What a special treat and a very memorable sendoff for our last day on Key West. It seemed only fitting.

Our time on Key West was an experience we will never forget. We only scratched the surface of things to do when you visit the Keys, but we sure did enjoy and appreciate the short time we spent there.

Boyd’s Campground was beyond our expectations. Their mission statement is to share their “Southernmost Hospitality” and a slice of paradise with their guests, and their goal is for every guest to enjoy the tropical vacation of a lifetime.

I’d say, in our case, they have succeeded.

Oh, and get those annual check-ups, because you never know when the prescription will be paradise!

https://www.boydscampground.com/