Islamorada Slow: Tarpon, Tacos & a Keys Sunset

Anne's Beach on Lower Matecumbe Key (MM 73.5) is a free public beach named for Anne Eaton, an environmental activist who spent years fighting development pressure in the Upper Keys. It is one of the few public beaches in the Keys with natural character intact: a short boardwalk trail through red mangrove marsh leads to a narrow Atlantic beach with shallow, warm, crystal-clear water — low enough to wade 100 yards offshore without reaching your waist. The mangrove trail passes through classic Keys wetland habitat; the beach itself has no concessions, no umbrellas for rent, and no admission fee. Go early before the wind comes up.

Robbie's Marina at MM 77.5 is one of the Keys' most enduring institutions — a working marina and boat rental facility where, for a small fee, visitors can hand-feed giant Atlantic tarpon from a low wooden dock over Florida Bay. The tarpon here weigh between 50 and 200 pounds and have been coming to this dock for decades; the original 'Scarface,' a tarpon that visited Robbie's for over 20 years, became something of a local celebrity. The experience is delightfully unpolished: you buy a bucket of baitfish from a shed, walk to the dock, and hold a fish over the edge — at which point a very large, very aggressive prehistoric fish will leap half out of the water to take it from your hand. Brown pelicans compete from above. Best done barefoot.