The water around Bahia Honda is the colour you think only exists in advertisements, and it is real. Bahia Honda State Park, on a small key between the Seven Mile Bridge and Big Pine Key, has some of the best beaches in the Florida Keys, with white sand, palm trees and shallow, clear water in shades of turquoise and jade. The name means deep bay in Spanish, a reference to the channel between the islands, one of the deepest in the Keys, which made it a particular challenge for the builders of the railroad.
The old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge is one of the most striking sights on the Overseas Highway. Built for Henry Flagler's railroad in the early twentieth century, it is a steel truss bridge, and when the railroad was destroyed by the hurricane of 1935, the state converted it into a road by laying the highway on top of the trusses, since the trains had run inside them. A new bridge replaced it in the 1980s, and sections of the old bridge have been removed to allow boats to pass, but you can still walk out onto part of it from the state park and look down into the deep channel, where you might see rays, sharks and turtles.
Just west of here, Big Pine Key is the home of the Key deer, a tiny subspecies of white-tailed deer, about the size of a large dog, that lives only in the Lower Keys. Once nearly extinct, they are now protected in the National Key Deer Refuge, and you will often see them by the roadside in the evening. The speed limits on Big Pine Key are lower, especially at night, to protect them, and the fines for speeding are high. Watch for them carefully, especially at dusk.
The riding here is flat, straight and scenic, with water on both sides and long bridges that make you feel as if you are flying over the sea. The wind can be strong, especially on the bridges, and crosswinds can push a bike around. In summer, the heat and humidity are intense, and short violent downpours roll through most afternoons, while hurricane season runs from June to November. Bahia Honda State Park has a concession with snacks, drinks and snorkelling trips, and Big Pine Key has fuel, food and supplies. Marathon, about eighteen kilometres east, has more choice.