The Ten Thousand Islands, From Naples

Drive twenty minutes south of Naples and the coastline stops being a coastline. From the southern end of Marco Island down to Cape Sable, the western edge of Florida disintegrates into a labyrinth of mangrove islands, oyster bars, tidal creeks and shallow bays — the Ten Thousand Islands, which despite the name comprise several hundred named islands and an uncountable number of unnamed ones.

It is part Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, part Everglades National Park, and it is the single most striking natural landscape within reach of a day trip from Naples.

What is actually out there

Cape Romano and the dome house ruins

Off the southern tip of Marco sit the remains of a set of concrete dome structures built in the early 1980s as an experimental self-sufficient house. Erosion and hurricanes have taken the island out from under them; what survives now stands in open water and continues to collapse year by year. It is the most photographed thing in the Ten Thousand Islands and genuinely eerie in person.

Panther Key, White Horse Key, Round Key

Outer islands with real Gulf-facing beaches, reachable on a day trip, essentially empty on weekdays. These are the swimming and shelling stops.

The interior creeks

Narrow, tannin-dark, mangrove-tunnelled channels where the water goes still and the noise stops. Roseate spoonbills, wood storks, white pelicans in winter, mangrove cuckoos if you are lucky, and manatees and juvenile tarpon in the deeper holes. Bull sharks use these creeks as a nursery.

Getting there from Naples

By water it is roughly 20 to 30 nautical miles from Gordon Pass to the good stuff around Cape Romano, depending on your route and the tide. In a fast boat on a calm morning that is under an hour; in chop it is a long, wet ride. That distance is why this is a full-day trip rather than an afternoon one, and why booking a day out with an experienced local captain is the standard way to do it — the alternative involves both a capable boat and a working knowledge of a hundred square miles of unmarked shallows.

There is also a land-based option: Everglades City, about 40 minutes south of Naples on US-41, is the traditional launching point for the eastern side of the archipelago, with boat tours, kayak outfitters and airboat operators. It is a very different Florida from Naples — a fishing settlement of a few hundred people — and worth the drive on its own merits.

Best conditions

• November through April: cooler, drier, far fewer insects, better visibility, calmer mornings. This is the season.
• Mid-tide and rising: the shallow interior is passable and you are not committing to being stuck when the water drops.
• Wind under 10 knots: the run down is exposed Gulf water for much of the way.
• Summer: exceptional wildlife and empty water, but plan around afternoon thunderstorms and be honest about mosquito load in the backcountry.

Fishing

The Ten Thousand Islands is one of the most productive inshore fisheries in the country. Snook along the mangrove edges, redfish on the oyster bars, spotted seatrout over grass, tarpon rolling in the passes from spring into summer, and cobia and mackerel nearshore. Seasons and slot limits change; check current Florida Fish and Wildlife regulations before you keep anything, and know that snook and redfish rules in southwest Florida have been adjusted several times in recent years.

What to pack

• More water than you think, plus electrolytes in summer
• Long sleeves and a buff — sun exposure out there is total
• Serious insect repellent for any stop in the interior
• A dry bag for anything that must not get wet
• Polarised sunglasses — they are what let you read the shallows