Long Key State Park

Turquoise blue water, sandy beach, palms trees...what more could you want? Loved it here! All the sites are facing the water with a direct view of nothing but ocean. And as a bonus you get plenty of trees on either side for privacy. Nothing fancy about this park. No pool or cable, or even sewer hook-ups, but at $38/night this is by far the best deal you will find for ocean side camping in the keys. Going on the list as one of our favorite state parks to date. Can't wait to go back!

We were there in November. Our site was separated from others by trees so that it seemed fairly private. All sites backup to the water. The beach is fairly narrow, but you have 30' of narrow beach that only you use.
The small town of Layton, which is nearby, does not have much to offer.
You can see everything in the park in a few hours.
There is kayaking, fishing, walking on the beach, a day trip to Key West. The water is very shallow and there are a lot of coral stone that hurt my feet. Not many restaurants nearby.
Most of the time there is a nice breeze blowing. BUT, while we were there the wind died for a few hours at dusk one evening, when the no-see-ums (extremely small gnats) about ate us alive. We had to close all windows, since they came through the screens, attracted to the lights. Thank goodness for air conditioning! The rest of the days we were there we did not have a problem!

At first, I didn't think our spot was going to be "on the beach", but every spot at Long Key is on the beach!! It was a little cold when we were there, but it was still amazing! Lots of space between us and everyone around us! The showers were amazing! I took one of the longest hot showers ever at this place! My 4 year old son and I walked 200 yards out into the ocean and were still standing at low tide.
I guess my only gripe would be that the connections were on the wrong side of my Airstream. Every two sites share the same connections, so one or the other will be on the wrong side. Just bring a longer hose and electric connector and you'll be fine.

We went to 3 state parks while in the Keys and Long Key is our favorite. Every site has ocean views.

As much as we love this campground, I'm glad we were only here for 3 nights. After the first night the little sand ants started to come in and by the end of the 2nd full day it was a constant battle.

The campground also has a real pungent odor that seemed to be worse during low tide and we saw rats in the dumpster at night. If it wasn't for the ants, the smell and the rats, I would have given this campground 5 stars.

On the Reserve America website, it stated that site #57 is for 25 foot trailers. We were able to fit both our 27 foot Airstream and short bed F-250 in the spot. The site wasn't super level which might be the reason for the length "restriction" though it wasn't enforced when we arrived.

Un-boosted:
Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 7.74Mb/s, UPLOAD: 3.31Mb/s
AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 15.02Mb/s, UPLOAD: 4.54Mb/s

Boosted:
Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 29.90Mb/s, UPLOAD: 6.08Mb/s
AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 18.39Mb/s, UPLOAD: 7.73Mb/s

We reserved two nights and decided to stay one more night in a walk in spot. The Rangers were great. Seems like they typically let folks who were staying in the park have first dibs on walk in sites if you want to stay a few more days...which if the weather is nice, you will! Every site is waterfront but they also sort of back up to hwy 1 so it can get a little noisy. Bonus was the free Friday am yoga on the water taught by a state park employee, Heather. She was fantastic! Also, make sure to check out the Lobster Crawl bar and grill for a great happy hour, live music and free wifi from 4-6. The spot is right on the water in an RV resort community.

We thoroughly enjoyed having the beach out our back window for two weeks. Here's a breakdown for you.

The Good
- The ocean is literally feet from your campsite. The water is shallow a long way out, so you can walk out quite far. You can also put a kayak in from your site. Our site had more rocks in it which made this harder when the tide was out, but it also meant we got to watch all the birds come in every day.
- The bathhouses are clean and convenient. This was great for us as we tried not to fill our grey tank during our stay.
- An astronomy club comes out on Tuesday nights and you can look through their telescopes.
- They are generous spaces. #37 says a max vehicle of 30ft. We put our 30 ft RV, SUV, and our big Clam screen tent in our space.
- If you're tent camping, they have raised and covered boardwalk spots near the nature walk in the mangroves.

The Bad
- The water pressure continually goes in and out. This happens in the bathhouses, too. The men's seemed fine, but the middle women's showers in the two last bathhouses were low. The first shower was better.
- The electricity in the Keys is not the best. It's only 30 amp in the park and we had trouble connecting as our surge protector kept going off. We finally had to bypass it as we knew the problem wasn't something to fry the system.

The Ugly
- There are rats here. They invade the dumpsters at night. We saw a few in trees, but thankfully never had an issue with them in our site.
- When the tide gets too low, you can smell the decay from the mangroves in areas.
- The road noise can be loud. I think we got used to it.

Overall, none of these things diminished our stay and we were quite happy to have weeks here. If we had a rat or ant problem, that would be very different, but thankfully, we didn't. The Grassy Key Outpost makes good pizza and is nearby.

We streamed on our Verizon and used AT&T fine.

Waterfront campsites are small but have decent separation. Water access is via a pathway partitioned off with small wood fences to protect the vegetation on either side. Road noise was a bit jarring at first but it's not so bad by the ocean and you do get used to it. The first comfort station by the dump station is older with rotting wood around the showers and had a plumbing problem while we were there that was promptly repaired. The other comfort stations down the road are brand new renovated and very clean. We launched our canoe from the site easily enough at high tide and there is an abandoned grounded sailboat nearby to see plus an abandoned Cuban refugee boat. I had to wade out several hundred feet to get deep enough for swimming. Lovely canoeing in the protected bay with a launch just inside the main gate - lots of jellys pulsing under the water. There were ants at our site but somehow they did not come into our trailer, noseeums were only a problem in the evening and the rats in the dumpster were entertaining. Long Key is located mid keys - it took a good 80 minutes to drive to Key West but there is lots to explore at this end of the keys as well.

We love Long Key! All the sites are waterfront. Cell service is spotty, but usable. Bathrooms have always been clean and the rangers and camp hosts are great here. We’ve camped here plenty of times, even tent camped before we had a TT. Best time of year is definitely the winter, but it’s beautiful year round if you can handle the heat. The seaweed can be a bit stinky at times and there are little jumping bugs by the water- they’re harmless, but it’s still jolting. It’s a bit away from a good grocery store. Kayaking is amazing here! There’s also a fantastic sandbar to hang out on. Camped most recently, July 19-22.

Sadly, the campground was wiped out with Hurricane Irma in Sept. 2017. They will not be opening anytime soon due to lack of funds. It was my favorite place in the Keys. Hopefully someday it will reopen.

This is a fun state park to visit with little kids since the water is shallow really far out. Plus the water color is beautiful! Bring a hammock so you can put it up and enjoy the ocean views.