Lover's Key is just one of dozens of natural areas that are an easy day trip from Upriver.
It's a Florida State Park on Black Island, one of a string of barrier islands that used to be accessible only by boat. The story is that the Key was named because, back when it was more remote, only lovers had the incentive to boat out to this solitary beach.
It's a lot easier to get to now — just a few miles down the Fort Myers Beach road. And there are amenities that make it easily usable — maybe not so romantic for young lovers, but easier for the rest of us.
The boardwalk above leads to a two-mile long beach. There are also over five miles of walking trails on the Island. When we first started our walk on one of the trails, we spotted this gopher tortoise digging her trench. These tortoises have shovel-like front feet, which they use just like the animal they're named for. This one was about 15 inches long.
There were gumbo-limbo trees along the trail we were on. It is also known as a "tourist tree" because the bark is red and peeling like some tourists. This one looked like it had a snake in it:
We drove to Lover's Key on a Sunday afternoon after a lazy morning of reading the paper over breakfast and vanilla lattes. We like knowing about natural areas that are easy to get to without a lot of advance planning. Sometimes you just want to go outdoors and play!
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