The last thing you expect to find in the mostly-flat state of Florida is a cavern, but that is just what you find in abundance at Florida Caverns State Park. This is one of the places built by the CCC in the 1930s. Its visitor's center/museum is a work of art in stone. Even the cave tour is a tribute to these enterprising workers. The CCC workers cleared the passages, often working in small crawlspaces on hands and knees with picks and buckets, thus allowing visitors today to walk upright through the magnificent cave. At the entrance to the cavern parking area, there is a superb bronze statue honoring these workers who labored from dawn to dusk for their $1 per day.

Not only is the park home to the cave system you can tour, there are dozens of other smaller caves.  My cave tour was led by Ranger Billy Bailey. He explained that at one time the area was covered with sea water. As the sea water receded, erosion of the limestone that formed Florida's bedrock caused the formation of this and other caves. Many caves in Florida exist, but they are far below the water table. When we reached the section of the chamber called "The Basement," Billy informed us, "At 60 feet beneath the surface, we are now in the deepest point in the cave above the water table. This is pretty rare as usually the water table in Florida is very close to the surface."

Merritt Island is a barrier island extending from the southern end of Volusia County to the middle of Brevard County and enclosed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River. It is filled with marshes, saltwater lagoons and upland woods filled with palmetto and oak hammocks, Water, fresh, salt and brackish estuary fringed by red mangroves, and climate that ranges from temperate to subtropical, create an unbelievable species diversity. Over 500 species of animal life and 1,000 plant varieties, 15 of which are on the threatened or endangered list. Being on the Atlantic flyway, doesn't hurt the birding a bit. The refuge is one of the best of the GRBT's named places. Wood stork, roseate tern, green turtle, Kemps Ridley turtle, Atlantic hawksbill turtle, leatherback turtle, loggerhead turtle, southeastern beach mouse, Florida salt marsh snake, piping plover, eastern indigo snake, American alligator. Florida scrub jay, West Indian manatee and gopher tortoise are just the threatened or endangered ones there. You can also see herons, ibises, snowy egrets, reddish egrets, red winged blackbirds and too many more to list. Take my word, this is birders heaven! Alligators are a given. There have been unconfirmed sighting of a Florida panther here. Not impossible as a radio collared juvenile male panther was tracked to Brevard County in the winter of 1999-2000.

One of my favorite wild places in the Keys is National Key Deer Refuge, located on Big Pine Key. The attraction here is deer, the tiny Key Deer, found nowhere else in the world. Although they are found predominantly on Big Pine and No Name Keys, they can also be found on Cudjoe, West Summerland, Big Torch, Howe, Little Pine, Little Torch, Middle Torch, Sugarloaf, Annette, Big Munson, Little Munson, Johnson, Knockemdown, Mayo, Porpoise, Ramrod, Toptree Hammock, Wahoo and Water Key. Their liquid chocolate eyes will melt the hardest heart. No larger than the average German Shepard, these dainty creatures are protected here and you are sure to see them if you visit the right spots. Due to the appeal of the little creatures, people frequently break the law against feeding wildlife. Because of this, they have largely lost their fear of humans and will often approach you very closely. The population is believed to be between 300 and 800. They are a high risk due mainly to automobile crashes as they are hard to see especially at dawn and dusk. When you see the lowered speed limit on big Pine Key, remember just that few miles-per-hour slower may save the life of one of these threatened beauties.