The popular state park campsite was raked by Hurricane Irma

The pretty good news is that parts of Bahia Honda State Park, everyone’s favorite campsite in the Florida Keys, have reopened for day use.

Soon overnight guests should be welcome, too.

The really bad news is that the most beautiful parts of Bahia Honda were raked by Hurricane Irma and the place will never be the same.

It’s true. Sad, but true. I saw it with my own eyes on a drive down the Overseas Highway.

A park ranger told me that the bayside campground facing the highway could open early next year. Which is fine. But the best Bahia Honda sites were the ones shaded by sea grapes facing the Atlantic Ocean.

When I asked the ranger about plans to reopen the beach camping area, she shook her head because I just didn’t get it.

“That’s all gone,” she said. “Gone.”

Keys of debris

Our trip started with a Lady Gaga concert in Miami. My wife and daughters had a great time. The next day we set out on one of the great road trips in the state, if not the nation.

Traveling on the Overseas Highway is like driving through a turquoise sea.

We knew about hurricane damage in the Florida Keys, but seeing it was something else. Even now, months after the September storm, they’re picking up piles of debris.

Neighborhoods and trailer parks have been stripped of the trees and shrubbery that made the Keys look more like a resort and less like a strip of land along a highway. Now everything is laid bare. It’s a stark contrast for longtime visitors.

Already, people are rebuilding. New plants will grow. But it will take years, if not decades.

Strong slogans

When we crossed the Seven Mile Bridge, we saw locals putting up a Christmas tree on the old span.

Their sign said “Keys Strong.”

That’s the spirit.

But grit and determination won’t bring back the beach campground at Bahia Honda.

There’s no more ground on which to camp. No more parking lot. No more beach road.

Just about everyone who stops at the state park takes a short walk up the old bridge that was part of the original Overseas Highway. It’s a great view. Now it shows what’s left.

There are facilities such as a temporary bathroom and a makeshift set of showers. Also a chain-link fence that keeps people from the entire Atlantic Ocean side of the place.

The words of the park ranger keep echoing in my head.

“That’s all gone. Gone.”