John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Campground

Cool place to snorkel

As soon as we heard about the John Pennekamp State Park's coral reefs, we immediately bought diving suits from the shop located at the Park and dived to see it ourselves. The experience is just one in a million. You get to see a great variety of sea creatures. (colorful fish)

The staff that guide and help you snorkel were very helpful. We had a great time while the sea was calm, then we got informed that the sea will become aggressive so we had to end it fast.

Very good experience.

I loved it here. I stayed 2 nights. I rode my Harley to Key West after the first night and took off after the 2nd night. Place feels safe. I had no problem leaving my vehicle and RV unattended while I was on the Harley all day.

Showers are clean. Sites are clean. I think it is a great place. All my neighbors were great.

I will definitely stay here again.

We were evacuated from KeyWest, found refuge here til it cleared out! Was safe and the staff was amazing, made us feel welcomed! Beautiful park with lots to do, although everything was on hold due to tropical storms warnings!

I arrived early for my Saturday checkin and was welcomed, it was nice to set up and enjoy the park a few hours early. A very nice Florida state park, it was pet friendly. As for a complaint if I had to pick one it’s the shared water spigots, my neighbor was clearly using the one for my site. The sites are close, some more than others. If privacy concerns you, this isn’t your place. But if your going to enjoy the miracle that is the Keys you will find more positives to enjoy!

The biggest asset of this campground was location. It is super handy to shopping and activities. The rangers and employees were really friendly and helpful.
Full hookups were really nice, but the picnic tables are all very close to your neighbors sewer connection (and we did smell the sewers more than we would have liked). The PVC water faucet is also very close to the sewer connection (definitely sanitize before using!) and is shared between campsites ours was on the wrong side so we had to run a hose thru our campsite to other side of the RV. But the water seems pretty good quality and we didnt mind drinking it. The sites are at right-angles to the road and tighter than most state parks, but they have some vegetation between the sites for moderate privacy. Mostly, the big trees provide a welcome shade for the campsites, rather than privacy.
The campground is gated 24/7, which is nice since it is so close to the day use area. The Park closes at exactly sunset we arrived 3 minutes after closing this evening and the gates were shut (keep that gate code with you)!
The Verizon data cell signal was reliably fast the whole time we stayed here (between 50-28 Mbps down, 12.5 - 9.4 Mbps up).
There are showers in the campground restrooms, which wasn't obvious on the map. The restrooms were pretty clean, but could use some updating. The outdoor laundry is located in the south end restroom (first one when entering the campground).
There were 2 washers and 2 dryers, which were $3.50 and $2.50 per load, respectively.
Kayak and paddle board rentals, snorkel gear, dive gear & tours are all available at the boat tour Gift Shop (book online or call to reserve), on the far side of the marina from the campground.

The park has re-opened after the hurricanes. They definitely lost a ton of trees but you can see they've replanted and will come back strong again. It does mean that there is hardly any privacy between you and your neighbor and not a lot of shade coverage. The sites are hard packed and fairly level, and it is a beautiful place to explore so it's still very worth it and it is currently the only state park in the keys open as well. Bathrooms are clean and showers are really spacious. Mangroves are wonderful to paddle through and explore. We saw lots of upside down jellyfish in the lagoon which was really neat. Rangers were really friendly and helpful. If you're going to arrive after 5pm, make sure you call ahead to get the gate code to get in.
Fair warning...you're backed up to mangroves. Bring noseeums bug spray. While not really any mosquitos in the winter, the noseeums will bite a lot and are small enough to get through your screens.

There's not much to this campground...it's a half-moon shaped road with a bunch of sites stacked up side-by-side. The sites are small, tight and shallow...but you're here for the location, not the spacious sites.

A couple detractors...Because you're so close to your neighbor, their smells (from the sewer) is right there. Our neighbor was having some challenges I think with his black water and we got way too much smelliness since his drain was feet from our spot. Another thing is that one water spigot supplies 2 sites. This means that one site has to run a longer length of hose under their camper to reach it, and the water pressure is shared between two sites which can mean lower pressure.

Our site was level and easy to back into. Site 8 was probably the best site in the park. We had family that stayed in one of the sites in the 30s and they barely had room for their slides. We also backed up to the water which was nice.The sites on the opposite side of the road have some structures and staff campers behind them so I'd recommend the side we stayed on.

The park itself is small, though it has some really beautiful aspects. It has 3 small beaches, each one feeling a little different. We preferred "Far Beach". It has a little path that takes you to a shallow spot out in the water that allowed for some great pics of the sunset behind the beach.

We opted to use "Reef Roamers" catamarans for our snorkeling trip which I'm so glad we did, compared to the state park's boats. We also kayaked the "Mangrove Trails" which was a lot of fun.

Overall, I'd definitely stay here again, especially to be in the area that we were in.

Finally securing a space at this State Park felt like winning the lottery and while this is a great place to explore the Keys from, the park itself was a major disappointment. We camped here in March of 2023. The sites are small, cramped and few in number. There was standing water just a few feet behind our site so the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were unbearable. There is nothing to look at but your neighbor and if you want to explore the rest of the park, you must get in line or make a reservation to do anything. I came to see the replica of the underwater Jesus statue but you can only view it IF you book a snorkeling trip and if it is busy, there is no guarantee that you’ll see it. I loved the two separate beaches but they are way too small to handle the traffic that was there. There is also a staging area for the DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) in the center of the park which made the area feel unsafe. When we return to Key Largo, we’ll chose a different park.

AT&T Down: 1.51mbps Up: 0.00 mbps Streaming: 1.0mbps Verizon Down: 66.18mbps Up: 20.68mbps Streaming: 3.7mbps Starlink Down: 103.46mbps Up: 11.49mbps Streaming: 50mbps

If you have the time, don’t miss the small aquarium in the visitor center and the glass bottom boat ride!

Stayed here for 1 night before heading further down the keys.
Greeted by very nice staff.
Bathrooms were spotless (both the older and newer facilities)
Good swimming spots (especially for kids)