A Drive on Miami's Wild Side
Explore Southern Florida via Krome Avenue
Photos and Story by Neil S. Plakcy

Homestead's Seminole Theater
 Most visitors to Miami think of its beaches, its glamorous hotels and its thriving culture. But on the western edge of the city, at the boundary of the Everglades, lies a world many tourists never explore. It encompasses two national parks, a rich agricultural area, interesting restaurants and charming shops. And it's all easily accessible from Krome Avenue, a north-south road which forms the western border of the developed area of Miami-Dade County.

Begin your exploration with Biscayne National Park, 173,000 acres devoted to the preservation of a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic life and habitats. From Florida's Turnpike heading south, take Exit 6, Speedway Boulevard. Just before you reach the massive stadium looming ahead of you (where NASCAR racing comes several times a year), turn left onto 328th Street, North Canal Road.

Head east on this narrow two-lane road running parallel to one of the many irrigation and drainage canals which crisscross the landscape. Eventually the manicured fields and palm groves give way to mangrove swamps and forests of Australian pine.
The two-story Dante Fascell Visitors Center, decorated with metal fish sculptures, is located on the southern shore of Biscayne Bay, where Hurricane Andrew first touched shore in 1992. Check out the second-floor visitor's center and its films and exhibits on the ecosystem of the bay, as well as interpretive programs offered by the park's rangers.

You can take advantage of glass bottom boat tours, snorkeling, diving, island excursions, and canoe and kayak rentals to enjoy the spectacular living coral reef, turquoise waters and verdant islands, or just sit on the second-floor balcony and watch the serene waters of the bay. The park also contains the longest stretch of mangrove forest left on Florida's east coast and over 40 of the northernmost Florida Keys.
When you've finished, return west on North Canal Road. You'll know you've returned to civilization when you see the Home Depot and Wal-Mart ahead of you. Continue across US 1 and turn right onto Krome Avenue, Route 997, named for William Krome, chief construction engineer for the Florida East Coast Railroad and also a local land developer.

Homestead was once a pioneer railroad town, the last stop on the railroad before it jumped to the series of bridges and causeways that carried it to Key West. Named for the Homesteader's Trail, once the only way in or out of the region, it's now the agricultural center of Miami-Dade County and home to a Farmer's Market.

Krome Avenue takes you into the historic downtown of Homestead, Florida's southernmost mainland city, with brick sidewalks and old-fashioned streetlights. There are several antique stores in the vicinity of the old Seminole Theater, a movie palace of the 1920s now undergoing renovation. Next to the theater is a public park with a bandstand and an ornate pedestal clock.

Antique lovers will also want to shop Cauley Square, on US1, which features a series of small shops in a group of restored buildings. If you're heading that way, check out Coral Castle, a bizarre home built entirely of large chunks of coral rock by a mysterious Lithuanian immigrant in memory of a lost love. Also in this direction is the Florida Keys Factory Outlet, with retailers including LA Gear, Van Heusen, Bugle Boy, Geoffrey Beene, 9 West, and Corning Revere, among others.

Downtown Homestead

Welcome to the Redland
 Music lovers will want to stop in at Homestead's Main Street Café, which offers internet-connected computers as well as progressive and traditional folk music and a Friday open mike night. If you're staying in the area, you may want to consider the Redland Hotel, a restored boutique hotel right in the city's downtown.
Because of Homestead's many migrant farm workers, the area has developed a wealth of Mexican restaurants, including El Toro Taco and Casita Tejas. The city is also home to an annual winter rodeo, when bathing suits and sandals give way to ten-gallon hats and cowboy boots.

After you've finished with Homestead, continue north on Krome Avenue as the city gives way to the red clay of the Redland, a farming community at Miami's back door. Directly underneath is a layer of oolite rock (similar to coral) and under that the vast resources of the Biscayne and Floridan Aquifers, which provide fresh water to Miami-Dade county.
Stop at one of the many fruit and vegetable stands like Fruiteria Los Girasoles (a girasole is a sunflower) or La Guajira Fruiteria (a guajira is a Cuban from the countryside). Seasonal specialties include watermelon, key limes, ciruela, (plums or prunes), guarapo, (sugar cane juice) and coco frio (cold coconut juice). In winter, take advantage of the many u-pick fruit and vegetable stands offering strawberries, tomatoes, and other produce. One of the best known is "Robert is Here," specializing in key limes and key lime pies.

A fruit stand along Krome Avenue
You know you're in a rural area when there are two feed stores just blocks from each other. In fact, the Redland is even home to the Fruit and Spice Park, about a mile west of Krome on SW 248th Street, Coconut Palm Avenue, which is lined with its tall, majestic namesakes. At the park, which includes several restored clapboard farmhouses, you can stroll this arboretum of tropical trees from around the world, free to pick up any seeds or fruits that have fallen to the ground, including mamey, sapote, lychee, passion fruit and atemoya. The small store at the park also sells oriental vegetable seeds and exotic foods like Key Lime Savory Oil, tamarind balls and cane vinegar.

Heading the other direction on 248th Street will take you to the Knaus Berry Farm, where Mennonites in traditional garb sell fruit and baked goods during the winter season. The long lines are testament enough to the excellence of their offerings. The Redland has also been designated a wild bird sanctuary, and you will see abundant avian life all around you. You may even see wild peacocks, who live in the area. The Tropical Audubon Society has also reported area sightings of Blue Grosbeak, Indigo and Painted Bunting, and Clay-colored Sparrow, among other birds.

Returning to Krome, you'll pass several orchard growers among the wholesale nurseries in the area. Be careful, though; Krome has been the scene of several serious accidents in the past year, so caution is warranted, particularly at night and in bad weather. The road is busy with dump trucks from the gravel quarries to the north, and produce trucks from the fields to the south. You may see memorials to crash victims along the side of the road, simple crosses decorated with plastic flowers.

Fruit and Spice Park
 Three miles east of Krome on SW 216th Street, Hainlin Mill Road, is Monkey Jungle, "where humans are caged and monkeys run wild." Nearly 400 primates, from Java monkeys to orangutans to gibbons, are mostly free in this 30-acre reserve. In the store you can find a variety of great souvenirs, including stuffed monkeys, logo shirts and monkey masks. You can also buy original finger paintings by King, the Jungle's male western lowland gorilla.

An additional two miles east, in season, is the Burr Berry Farm, growers of delicious strawberries, which they also make into wonderful milkshakes. You can venture into their fields to pick corn, strawberries, squash or beans.


Returning to Krome, there's something very peaceful about flat land stretching for miles on either side of the road, even as you pass a sign advertising "Rabbits, Mice and Rats." The area is home to a model airplane club's flying field, a ranch where the disabled can learn to ride horses and an archery range. Overnight visitors can stay at the Historic Grove Inn Country Guesthouse, a quaint inn built by a pioneer family.

The wilderness takes over again as you cross Kendall Drive, SW 88th Street, and you can easily forget that the urban sprawl of Miami is just a few miles east as you pass rock quarries, pine forests and stands of sawgrass marsh. The city finally begins to encroach as you pass the Krome Detention Center and then reach Tamiami Trail, also known as SW 8th Street and US Route 41.
Vultures and hawks soar over the multi-story Miccosukee Bingo & Hotel at this intersection. Part of the 300,000 acre Miccosukee reservation (much of which is underwater in the Everglades) this large, resort-style gaming complex includes a 302-room hotel, several restaurants, a Children's Club, a fitness center and a European-style spa. It's a good base for exploring the Everglades (if you can control yourself around the video machines, poker and bingo!)

Leaving the Miccosukee complex, you can continue north on Krome Avenue until it connects to US Route 27, which will take you north to Lake Okeechobee. You can turn east on 41 and return to Miami, or head in the other direction toward Tampa (hence the historic road's name.) This way will take you past Chekika Ranger Station, one of the entrances to Everglades National Park, and the Shark Valley recreational area.

A statue outside the casino