Parking
Both mapped section starts are identified at Longbeach Drive. The refuge trail information gives no dedicated visitor lot or legal roadside parking; confirm where to leave the car with refuge staff.
Overview
About Longbeach Trail
Why go
- Two distinct coastal spurs make it easy to shorten the outing.
- The path passes mangroves and hardwood hammock before reaching open water.
Heads up
- Both branches require backtracking; the posted 1.02 miles counts the tread only once.
- No dedicated parking is listed, and public access needs confirmation.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Overseas Highway map
Full mapElevation3–20 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
3 active Overseas Highway alerts
- CautionCoastal flooding across the Florida KeysA Coastal Flood Warning remains in effect for the Upper Keys and Coastal Flood Advisories remain in effect for the Middle and Lower Keys until 5 a.m.Official details
- CautionNighttime lane closures on Seven Mile BridgeExpect possible nighttime lane closures on Seven Mile Bridge for FDOT’s rehabilitation project to repair and strengthen the bridge.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Overseas Highway Tour Guide
Your drive to Longbeach Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Overseas Highway. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Overseas Highway audio tourRecorded for this area
Islands Made of Tiny Grains0:00 / 0:31
“Big Pine Key sits near a change in what these islands are made of. Much of the Upper Keys is ancient coral reef rock. Farther west, the Lower Keys are built mainly from limestone full of tiny rounded grains called ooids.”
Plays on the road 0.9 mi from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Overseas Highway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- A Floating Nursery
- Florida Keys Wildlife Refuges Nature Center
- A Conch Grows a Thicker Lip
- Salt on the Leaves
- 136 audio storiesacross Overseas Highway’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Crocodile, Alligator, Manatee, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 26 trails, 88 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Longbeach Trail
Two short shoreline spursLongbeach Trail is a pair of natural-surface paths from Longbeach Drive that end separately at…
Longbeach Trail is a pair of natural-surface paths from Longbeach Drive that end separately at the coast. The refuge map lists 0.39 and 0.63 miles of trail, 1.02 miles of mapped tread in total. That is the line length, not the full walk: doing both branches out and back, plus the footpath between their starts, makes about 2.25 miles. Allow around 90 minutes with a little time at the water. The shorter western branch works as a quicker option; the full outing means backtracking on both.
Check access before setting outThe refuge still maps Longbeach Trail, but a hiking reference reports that it was abandoned…
The refuge still maps Longbeach Trail, but a hiking reference reports that it was abandoned after hurricane damage and would not reopen. That conflict has not been resolved by a current refuge notice. Confirm access with refuge staff before making the trip; don't assume the adjacent shoreline is the mapped trail. The trail information does not identify a dedicated visitor lot or legal roadside parking. Dogs are allowed on leash; bicycles are prohibited on Long Beach.
Low coastal groundBoth sections are mapped as pedestrian trails on native surface, about four feet wide.
Both sections are mapped as pedestrian trails on native surface, about four feet wide. The route stays low, with a subtle 1-to-6-metre elevation profile. On the ground it passes scrub, mangroves and hardwood hammock before reaching shallow water and exposed rock. Refuge-wide guidance warns that rustic trails can flood in the rainy season, mosquitoes can be troublesome, and poisonwood grows beside trails. Stay on the tread and bring water and sun protection. At the shoreline, a little foreground rock or mangrove root gives the shallow water more shape in a photo.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Overseas Highway
18 sightingsCrocodileMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
255 sightingsAlligatorMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
55 sightingsManateeMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
70 sightingsCommon Bottlenose DolphinMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
51 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
1,120 sightingsKey DeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Overseas Highway. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
