Everglades Canoe Trip January 2003

Pavilion to New Turkey Key

The night was windy and cold, so we got up late and took another walk on the beach. We ate lunch while waiting for the tide to turn and left about noon. The wind was behind and a little to our left as we crossed the open water in front of Chatham Bend. On our way we got very close to a pod of Dolphins who did some splashing and jumping. As we passed Mormon Key we discovered that the various small islands did not match the map very well, but we found New Turkey Key without difficulty.

New Turkey Key is certainly one of the nicer beach campsites. We came ashore on the northern side where the beach is cobbled with four to six inch shells with their round sides all facing up. We camped on white sand surrounded by a curiously open stand of mangroves. It was easy to walk along the spit of land to the east, almost like a park. I found a nice private beach and took a bath before making pasta and vegetable salad for dinner. The sunset was fiery orange.