Biscayne National Park
Episode Guest
Gary Bremen – Naturalist
Biscayne National Park Institute
Retired National Park Ranger
Park Stats
Location: Homestead, Florida
Park designation date: October 18, 1968 – designated as a National Monument, designation changed in 1980s
President when the park was created: Lyndon Johnson
Park size: 172,971 acres
Highest elevation: 9ft (Totten Key)
Lowest elevation: 60ft below sea level
Number of Visitors in 2023 – 571,242
Fun Facts:
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- 95% water
- The area was a top key lime producer
- Home to over 600 species of fish (mostly all native), neo-tropical wild birds, and endangered species including crocodiles, sawfish, sea turtles, manatees and the critically endangered Schaus swallowtail butterfly.
- Conservation of plants – including the mangroves
Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
When I was seven, my mom and dad bought a 15 foot long travel trailer and I got to go with them when they decided to take a six week trip. out west.
And we went to Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and Carlsbad and so many places. That was when I decided to be a National Park Ranger.
What made you love the parks?
They’re beautiful places for sure. I think, honestly, I just had a crush on park rangers. They were so smart and they seemed to know everything and they were fun. And then that’s why I decided to do it at seven.
What is your favorite thing about Biscayne National Park?
It’s the little things, the moodiness of the place, the way it looks in different conditions. I’m not adverse to being there on a really crappy weather day because that offers its things, too. So it’s the little stuff. It’s not any one thing. It’s discovering little tiny things on a shoreline and the cloud formations and all of that kind of stuff.
What is your favorite thing to do at Biscayne National Park?
Paddle boarding in Jones Lagoon.
What park have you yet to visit but is on your bucket list and why?
Oh gosh. I have been to 283 of the National Parks and so there are still quite a few, 150 or so, on my list. Of the big ones, Crater Lake has eluded me. Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota. It’s a little bit out of the way from every other one and I’ve just missed it on trips but I want to go there.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
My iPhone so I can take lots of pictures and remember it. My husband because there ain’t nothing like traveling with someone you love. And a raincoat. Always be prepared with a raincoat.
What is your favorite campfire activity?
Telling stories.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
Oh, I do not sleep well in tents, so it would have to be one. Of the latter two, I’m probably more of a cabin guy.
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
I have rarely used poles. I think when I went to the bottom of the Grand Canyon I used poles, but never over time.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
Some kind of nutty, raisiny, chocolatey, mixed up thing.
What is the best animal sighting that you’ve had?
Gosh well, my second favorite National Park is Katmai National Park, and I did go there in July of 2018 specifically to watch the bears that are now so famous on on TV. All the channels with Fat Bear Week and stuff like that. So in the big scheme of things, probably the bears.
At Biscayne, it’s the little tiny animals. It’s something like finding a violet sea snail on the shoreline or seeing coral spawn in the middle of the day.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
Silence.
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
It’s the opportunity to connect with something much bigger than we are, whether that is a giant sky filled with stars, or an enormous tree, or a coral reef, or the incredible history of a place being saved for future generations, or to be there with the person you love. Ken Burns once said “Sometimes it’s less about the place than who’s holding your hand when you’re there.”