My visit in May to the Everglades has convinced my to change my "Virtual Tour of the Florida Keys" to the "Virtual Tour of South Florida."
I spent two and a half days exploring
just a few of the beautiful sights in the 'Glades. My first day was spent on and around
the road from the park main entrance to the "city" of Flamingo. This is a great
road because as you stop along the way southwest to Flamingo, you see how the environment
changes as the land slopes gradually to the sea. You start with sawgrass marshes, pine
forests and hammocks, and end up in dense mangrove swamp as Florida Bay leads out to the
Gulf of Mexico.
The wildlife throughout the park is incredible. I easily doubled the number of birds on my "list" in my short year as a bird watcher. The water was brimming with alligators, fish, and turtles.
It is truly an amazing sight to watch a Great Blue Heron, not five feet away, plunge his head into the creek to snatch a fish from the water.
The second day I explored the northern section of the park, starting at Shark Valley. There is a 15 mile loop road wandering through the swamp. Halfway around is a large observation tower where you get great 360° views of the "River of Grass." Directly below is a lazy river filled with gators. You can walk, ride a bike, or take a tram around the loop road. I chose to rent a bike so I could enjoy the peacefulness of the park and so I could stop and explore when I wanted to. Birds, bugs, and alligators everywhere.
My bike ride only took three hours, so I
decided to head west on the Tamiami Trail out to Everglades City, another
"locale" in Everglades National Park.
The Everglades City part of the park is mostly on the water in the Ten Thousand Islands region. So I did the touristy thing and hopped on a boat for a ride around Chokoloskee Bay. This is a great area to check out the mangrove forests, which form the framework for most of the keys and islands in the area. I saw several osprey nests and many wading birds. The fins of two dolphins were poking up out of the water as they waited for the nearby fisherman to give up a small catch. Manatees frequent this area, too, but we didn't see any.
The Everglades are a cool place to see and you must see at least the Anhinga trail while you're there. But give it a little more time and you'll experience some excellent nature.
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Links:
National Park Service Everglades Page
Books:
Exploring Wild
South Florida
Killing
Mister Watson