John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
State park · Key Largo
Key Largo, FL 33037
Highlights
This vibrant undersea park is a nature lover's dream, offering snorkeling, kayaking, and interesting wildlife encounters amid lush mangroves.
This vibrant undersea park is a nature lover's dream, offering snorkeling, kayaking, and interesting wildlife encounters amid lush mangroves.
"The Christmas Tree Cave in the French Reef is a popular dive and snorkel site year-round, but there’s something wonderful about visiting the site over the Christmas holiday. The dive site has spectacular coral formations and plenty of Christmas Tree Worms, an ocean worm that resembles a colorful, little Christmas tree after which the site was named." - Evie Carrick Evie Carrick Evie Carrick is a writer and editor who’s lived in five countries and visited well over 50. She now splits her time between Colorado and Paris, ensuring she doesn't have to live without skiing or L'
"Spend some time at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first undersea park in the country, which offers snorkeling, scuba diving, glass-bottom boat tours, and more." - Travel + Leisure Editors
"The first underwater preserve in the U.S., John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a must-visit for snorkelers and divers — but you can also explore it by glass-bottom boat, kayak, or paddle board." - Travel + Leisure Editors
"No snorkel spot in the Keys is better than John Pennekamp State Park, home not only to some of the best reefs in the Keys but also the underwater Christ of the Abyss, a statue of Jesus by Italian sculptor Guido Galletti that’s submerged 25 feet beneath the sea." - Travel + Leisure Editors
"This was the first undersea park, established in 1963 to protect the only living coral reef in the continental United States."
