![]() ![]() That bounty has been picked clean, but this is the oldest shipwreck along the trail and is only in 18 feet of water. And don’t miss the San Pedro, the Spanish galleon that sank in 1733, loaded with treasure. It’s fully intact and divers can roam in and out of its wheelhouse and various hatches, and even peer into the smokestack, where you never know what might be lurking. The Duane is a Coast Guard cutter donated as an artificial reef, located off south Key Largo, in 120 feet of water, so that one is for experienced divers to explore. Watch for blacktip sharks, colorful parrotfish and much more roaming around this shipwreck. It went down in 1942 and is scattered over a large area in depths as deep as 45 feet and teems with marine life. Begin in the water east of Key Largo with the City of Washington, which sunk in 1917 in a depth of 25 feet, then make your next dive the Benwood, one of the trail’s most popular wrecks, near Key Largo’s Dixie Shoals. If you’re heading here strictly for the underwater excursions, follow the Marine Sanctuary Shipwreck Trail for a great series of dives, checking out the different ships as you travel south. It is within this sanctuary that beautiful reefs await adventurous divers, as well as purposefully sunken wrecks that have turned into artificial reef systems. It took until 1990 for even more of these beautiful waters to be protected, as that state park became a part of the larger Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary that stretches from above Key Largo to well beyond Key West. Key Largo is the place for scuba divers (and snorkelers, too) to get wet with Jesus, as adventurers will find the massive Christ of the Deep statue in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park - the world’s first underwater park, created in 1960 and designed to protect the fragile reef system that was being destroyed by oil drilling, shipping and other human intrusions. The bucolic charms of Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada center on the water, the reefs, the wrecks and Everglades National Park (reached by boat from Key Largo). ![]()
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