Everglades

From Wikipedia – The Everglades are the largest tropical wilderness in the United States. This mangrove and tropical rainforest ecosystem and marine estuary is home to 36 protected species, including the Florida panther, American crocodile, and West Indian manatee. Some areas have been drained and developed; restoration projects aim to restore the ecology.

• Established: 5/30/1934
• Annual Visitors: 1,508,939
• Size: 597,124 acres

Everglades NP Dec 18, 2019

Last night (Dec 17th, 2019) we stayed in Homestead, FL between the entrance to Biscayne NP and Everglades NP. This is the entrance with the Ernest F. Coe Visitor’s Center, one of many visitor centers in Everglades NP.  After picking up our traditional souvenirs: a pin, postcards and ink stamp in our NP book, we headed to Royal Palm, Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo Trails. The boardwalk and paved paths were wonderfully filled with an abundance of birds, alligators, mangroves, fig trees, lily pads and more. This is a fresh water area. The large black vultures in the parking lot reminded us of the Hitchcock movie “The Birds”. There were at least 50 in numbers. As soon as you walk away from your car, several fly to the top of your vehicle. The park provides tarps you can place over your car and I highly recommend you do so. I also recommend you do not visit in a convertible as the inside of your car would have many remnants and if you put your top up it might have a variety of air holes in it when you return! We were told the vultures are far worse in the morning, of course, which was when we were there. Our rental SUV was no worse for wear after removing the tarp upon our return after exploring the trails and boardwalks for almost 2 hours.

Gary bought a new camera just before we left, a Nikon D5600 with a couple interchangeable lenses (obviously, the lack of details on the lenses proves I’m not a camera buff) but it, and Gary, take some really good shots!

After passing a low forest area, we continued to Pa-hay-okee Overlook and enjoyed a short boardwalk trail and experienced a very different terrain/eco system. This location was flat. Although you would say it was fields or marshland it is actually an 8 mile wide river!

An interesting fact about the 9 different Ecosystems in Everglades NP…such as Marine; Cypress; Pineland and Freshwater Slough (pronounced: ‘slew’) areas…is that a mire few inches in elevation can change the plant and wildlife that live there!

Our next stop was an Earth Cache (Geocaching.com) Gary had previously downloaded when we had WIFI. It was called “Tree Islands”, roughly 10 miles from the Earnest F. Coe Visitor Center. Sherry and Gary enjoy what we fondly call “Story Time” which are informational and educational blurbs on the caching website that accompany the cache’s co-ordinates. There was a placard to read in order to get credit for the cache but there was overgrowth in front of the information sign on the side of the road. So Gary, in his shorts and low cut trail shoes, stepped forward toward the sign and sadly placed his foot right on top of a Fire Art mound! We sprayed his ankles, legs, hands, shoes and socks with bug spray we had in the car but without counting, it is fairly safe to say he was bitten/stung by roughly 50 ants and many more all over him. The only thing he could say was: “I now know why they are called Fire Ants!” Poor guy: (After making sure all, or as many of those nasty little bugs he could see, were off him, we hopped back in the car to drive the remainder of the 39 miles from the Earnest F. Coe Visitors Center to Flamingo Visitor Center at the most southern tip of the Everglades.

Once at Flamingo Visitors Center we realized the impact weather and age can have on an ocean front location. They have abandoned the original Visitor’s Center for a mobile office and “fancy” outhouse. Although both trailers are clean and doing their job, it is sad to have a large portion of the waterfront blocked off due to damage to the original buildings. Hurricanes Wilma (2005) and Irma (2017) have rendered the midcentury architecture unusable. I have read that there are restoration plans for the large complex through some grants and the Park Trust but construction had not begun when we were there.

The marina, store, food truck and most walking trails as well as campsites are accessible. In addition to all the terns, herons and ibis all around, manatees, crocodiles (yup, I said crocs, not alligators in the marina area) and the nesting Osprey were very close by and active. Great to experience!

One recommendation we have is to stop in at “Robert Is Here” on the way/way back to Earnest F. Coe Visitor’s Center. You can enjoy a fabulous coconut chocolate milkshake or banana strawberry kiwi fruit smoothie from the extensive variety of flavors available. All the fresh fruits and veggies, greens and canned goods you would ever need for your diet or gifts! There’s a large animal pen in the back with an emu, goats, chickens, cows, tortoises and colorful chatty birds to enjoy.