Curry Hammock State Park Beach and Day-Use Area

This is Curry Hammock's main Atlantic beach and picnic area on Little Crawl Key: about 1,200 feet of sand beside a kayak and paddleboard launch. Stop for a swim or lunch by the water, or make it longer with a paddle around the island. The lot is limited and there is no overflow parking; the park stops admitting cars when it fills.

The shoreline fronts shallow seagrass flats, with generally gentle water in the marked swimming area and deeper water to the east near the kayak launch. Those flats are nursery habitat for many Florida Keys marine species. The park posts beach flags because swimming conditions change, so check them before heading in. For a photo, include the pale sand and band of shallow flats; a frame of open water alone misses what makes this shoreline different.

The short loop is about 1.5 miles and takes roughly an hour. It passes a mangrove tunnel, lagoon, seagrass flats, sandbars and open water. At very low tide the tunnel may be too shallow to pass; the park points paddlers to a sandbar just east of the launch as an alternative. You can launch your own kayak or paddleboard here, and rentals are listed through the ranger station; check availability before planning around them.

Curry Hammock's higher ground is built from fossilized coral that formed underwater. That old reef rock lifts the tropical hardwood hammock's roots above the saltwater, a useful clue to how these low islands support dense forest. The beach is one part of a park that also protects this unusual hammock landscape.

Florida made Curry Hammock a state park in 1991. It is named for Lamar Louise Curry, a Miami teacher whose father, Thomas, bought substantial land across the Middle and Upper Keys.

The Middle Keys narrow to roughly a kilometer here, funnelling southbound birds of prey through the area. Curry Hammock is one of the Keys' main hawkwatch sites. On October 10, 2012, observers counted 651 Peregrine Falcons in one day; that fall's season total was 3,836. The park's strongest monitoring window runs from mid-September through October, so a fall visit can add migration watching to the beach stop.