Ok

If you want to do water activities (kyaking, boating, scuba & snorkeling excursions, ...) it may be great. Done those in years past, so not what I was looking for. Campground is great re hookups. Otherwise, a nice place to relax, but NO landslide activities. A single day or two at most. If water activities are your desires, vendor (s) provide many options. For my needs 1 star, for water maybe 5, so average 2-3. May need to travel the extra 100 miles to Key West for a landslide vacation.

Pretty Nice Place

Sites are clean, Plenty of Hookups, Very nice bathrooms. Make sure you bring quarters if you want to do laundry. $6 for a full wash and dry. Gate entry codes after hours are great. All and all a great stay.

Wonderful Aquarium

Beautiful park with informative aquarium and must see video. Dive center and glass bottom boat tours. About a mile to bike to Hobos for good food, happy hour, key lime pie! Do write down or photo code to get back in as gates secured at sunset

Re Opened After Hurricanes

The park has re-opened after the hurricanes. They definitely lost a ton of trees but you can see they've replanted and will come back strong again. It does mean that there is hardly any privacy between you and your neighbor and not a lot of shade coverage. The sites are hard packed and fairly level, and it is a beautiful place to explore so it's still very worth it and it is currently the only state park in the keys open as well. Bathrooms are clean and showers are really spacious. Mangroves are wonderful to paddle through and explore. We saw lots of upside down jellyfish in the lagoon which was really neat. Rangers were really friendly and helpful. If you're going to arrive after 5pm, make sure you call ahead to get the gate code to get in. Fair warning...you're backed up to mangroves. Bring noseeums bug spray. While not really any mosquitos in the winter, the noseeums will bite a lot and are small enough to get through your screens.

Location, location, location

Campsites are a bit close together, and the park can get crowded on weekends. Campground is maybe 2.5 stars, but the park itself is a 10. Largo Sound is one of the best places for kayaking, especially on a windy day. Cruising thru quiet mangrove channels is nice, just avoid the main channel due to powerboats. Beach is on sheltered water and great for kids. Excursions out to reefs for diving/snorkeling are available, although you can see many species of fish snorkeling along rocks near beach. Nature center very informative and a great intro to the Keys.