Mike Forster Memorial Park

Mike Forster Memorial Park is a small Monroe County water access point at 20 Sunset Road in Key Largo, bayside at mile marker 95.2. It is a working boat ramp rather than a recreation park. There is one concrete ramp, rated by the county for small craft such as kayaks, six truck and trailer spaces on pea rock, a picnic table and a trash can. If you are launching a kayak or a small skiff into Florida Bay on the Key Largo side, this is a legitimate and convenient put-in.

Come prepared for the constraints, because they are real and enforced. The six spaces are first come, first served, and they fill. The park sits inside the Bay Harbor and Sunset Point subdivisions, parking is prohibited on the neighborhood right-of-way, and unauthorized parking carries a $200 fine. Monroe County residents launch and park free; everyone else pays through a mobile parking app. The park was closed for a full summer in 2021 because of overcrowding, so the rules exist for a reason and the neighbors are paying attention.

The park was known as Sunset Point Park until November 2021, when the county renamed it for Mike Forster, who represented the Upper Keys as a county commissioner and served five terms on the Islamorada Village Council, two of them as mayor, before his death in September 2021. Among the things he worked on was managing exactly the traffic and parking pressure this stretch of Key Largo gets. Launching here quietly, parking where you are supposed to, and leaving the street clear is a reasonable way to honor that.