Fort Taylor State Park

The fort and moat

We decided to ride our bikes over to Fort Zachary Taylor today which is located on the southwestern end of Key West.  For a small fee you can enjoy a very nice park with a fort to explore, bike paths, beach access and even a concession stand with decent food and beer.  It was a rather warm day in town but out there a nice breeze was blowing off the water to cool things down considerably.

The fort was constructed during the mid-1850s.  At the onset of the Civil War it was held by Union forces.  It was also used extensively during the Spanish-American war in 1898. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in the 1970s due to the large collection of Civil War canons, etc. which were found buried there. Originally surrounded on all sides by water, with only a bridge to the mainland, the land has been filled in so that there is only a moat around the buildings now.

Beach and pines

 It is apparently also popular as a beach destination.  There were quite a few more people than we expected to see on a Thursday morning when no cruise ships were in town.  People had brought picnics and beach chairs and were enjoying the sun and waves. Tom and I set ourselves up in the shade of the trees that surround the beach.  The sound of the wind whistling through the pines above us was very relaxing.

After reading for a while and getting a bite to eat, we rode around the bike trail to view the fort from the opposite side.  We had explored the building on a previous trip, so this time we didn't go inside.  We have been finding our fold-up bikes very useful in getting around town.  We only had one until we got to Marathon, but bought another on sale at West Marine while we were there and have put it to good use.

View from the beach

Driftwood?

Our rides