The Vandenberg: From Military Ship to Massive Artificial Reef in Key West
During its distinguished career, the 524-foot USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg was once a troop transport and missile-tracking ship that monitored Soviet missile launches during the Cold War and tracked space launches off Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The popular gateway to the Keys, Key Largo is the ideal introduction to diving in this archipelago (the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 2,900 square nautical miles, beginning in Biscayne National Park and extending all the way to the Dry Tortugas).
A handful of keys, including Plantation, Windley, and Upper and Lower Matecumbe, make up this area. The colorful Eagle wreck, 6 miles off Lower Matecumbe Key, rests in 110 feet of water and is home to resident angelfish and green moray eels.
You can dive one of the oldest and fishiest wrecks in the Keys—the 188-foot Thunderbolt, a former World War II cable laying ship—or spend nearly endless bottom time exploring Sombrero Reef, where corals thrive.
The Lower Keys are the least developed of The Florida Keys and in many ways the most natural. The Lower Keys is known for its rare and endangered Key deer, the diminutive cousins of white-tailed deer.
A fitting end to a Florida Keys road trip is experiencing Key West's fabled attractions, from the Hemingway House to Hog's Breath Saloon, Mallory Square at Mile Marker 0, and of course, the diving.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are those of the sponsors and are not an endorsement nor do they reflect the opinions of PADI or any of its publications.
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