How To Experience Florida's EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK In Under Two Hours
Written: Feb 15 '06 (Updated Sep 02 '07)
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Pros: Wildlife is abundant. Birds and gators are all over the place. Park is easily accessible.
Cons: Mosquitoes, heat and humidity can taint summer visits... our February visit presented no such problems.
The Bottom Line: This park is easily accessible to South Florida visitors. The abundance of alligators and other wildlife at Royal Palm is impressive.
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| radioroger's Full Review: Everglades National Park |
Perhaps nowhere else in the U.S. will visitors find such a high concentration of animal life in the wild. On the half-mile long Anhinga Trail, visitors will encounter huge, colorful shorebirds and abundant alligators... always within sight.
OVERVIEW
At over 2000 square miles, Everglades National Park is quite large. The park covers Florida's southern tip from a line roughly from Naples to Miami, and extends several miles south into the Florida Bay. Most areas are inaccessible by car and much is inaccessible by most other means. Although the park has two visitor centers on its north side, the main entrance is located on the east side... about ten miles west of U.S. 1 in Florida City. This entrance allows for maximum access to the park's best features and activities. The park has three distinct sub-environments... freshwater, saltwater and the occasional hardwood hammock. There is a wide variety of activities for those making brief or extended visits. The park offers camping, boating, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, and of course... outstanding bird and wildlife watching. The wildlife is quite abundant. In fact, the Everglades is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodile exist side-by-side.
ECOLOGY / HISTORY
Established in 1947, Everglades National Park was the first national park created primarily to protect an endangered ecological system. The Everglades is essentially a grass-covered, gently sloping 50-mile wide river flowing from Lake Okeechobee south through Florida's tip. It is the only subtropical environment in the continental U.S. The rapidly growing population of South Florida has created several threats to the fragile Everglades ecosystem. Canals have disrupted the natural patterns of water flow and the rapidly increasing population has created proportionately higher human demand upon the fresh water flowing through the Everglades. Everglades National Park constitutes only about one-fifth of the entire area known as the Everglades. Despite recent extension of the park boundaries, plans for future extensions and other preservation efforts, this unique ecosystem's survival remains in question.
OUR TWO-HOUR EXPERIENCE
Traveling with my two teenage daughters, we had landed in Ft. Lauderdale (from Ohio) the previous night. This was the first full day of a 5-day February trip to south Florida and Key West. The plan was to take the whole day to meander our way south and take in some of some the sights and attractions along the way. Everglades National Park and the nearby Biscayne National Park were the first two places on our agenda. We arrived at the park's main entrance at about 10 AM. We stopped briefly at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, just inside the park entrance. This visitor center is fairly large and well-maintained. There are several interesting exhibits and dioramas. We picked up our park map and spoke with a ranger about the best place to see alligators. The heavily-tattooed Australian-accented park ranger's enthusiasm was without question. (I mention these details because he reminded me of Crocodile Dundee.) The friendly ranger told us that the best place to view alligators in the entire park was the Anhinga Trail at the Royal Palm area... about four miles away. I would have been happy to see just a gator or two. We were entirely unaware of the abundant wildlife we were about to see.
The landscape between Ernest Coe Visitor Center and Royal Palm is relatively unremarkable... mostly flat grasslands with palm and other trees visible in the distance. Upon approach to Royal Palm, we saw a few of the namesake 60-80 foot tall royal palm trees towering over the visitor center. The Royal Palm area has a small visitor center adjacent to the parking lot. Two distinctly different trails begin here. Both trails are both flat, paved and handicapped-accessible. The Gumbo Limbo Trail focuses on the area's flora. The half-mile trail is an easy shaded hike through an area resembling a stereotypical jungle. The short paved trail is lined with palms, gumbo limbo trees, ferns and other foliage within the other trees.
Our trail... the must-see trail with all the animals is called the Anhinga Trail, named after the beautiful anhinga bird which is indigenous to the area. The trail begins by a small pond behind the visitor center. We immediately spotted several different shorebirds in the trees and along the edge of the pond. After admiring the birds for a few moments, we then noticed our first gator over the ledge at the trailhead. We watched him for awhile and I took a disproportionate number of photos before we continued down the trail. The first half of the trail curves around the pond. We saw many more birds, a turtle and a few more gators... some of considerable size. The birds included cormorants, great blue herons, tri-color herons, anhingas, great egrets, snowy egrets, vultures, the endangered wood stork and a variety of other shorebirds of various sizes and colors. Some of the alligators were right next to the trail. There is no barrier or protective fence between these gators and the trail. At times, we were within a yard or two of the reptiles... simultaneously exhilarating and unnerving. The beasts rarely moved. Their sharp protruding teeth, unmoving soulless eyes and lack of motion belied their ability to lunge and grab us should they be stricken with such a notion. By the way, an alligator can outrun and average human over short distances... again, should it decide to do so. The visitor centers and park literature offer some cursory warnings about the perils presented by wild alligators, but serious warnings and signage touting the dangers posed by gators are conspicuously lacking. Maybe these reptiles are used to people walking by daily. Perhaps they have abundant food in their natural environment. Maybe they just aren't that hungry in February. Whatever the case, we never lost sight of the gators who were within close proximity. (One exception... I convinced my daughters to sit on the decorative fence with a large gator in the background... I snapped a GREAT photo)
The second half of Anhinga Trail traverses an elevated wooden boardwalk loop across the open, grassy swamp. Since hikers are now isolated, any perceived gator danger is minimized. However, alligators are even more abundant along the boardwalk. On two or three occasions, we saw groups of several gators in this area. The avian population is just as high here. We encountered a nesting area of one unidentified shorebird. After the boardwalk loop, the trail leads back around the pond to the visitor center. On our return hike, the overcast day suddenly presented us with a few minutes of bright sunshine. I ran around like the proverbial headless chicken to snap some great sunshiny photos.
From the east (main) entrance, Everglades National Park is open 24/7. The Ernest Coe Visitor Center is open from 9-5 from 4/17 - 12/17 and 8-5 in the winter.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Flamingo is a small village located 38 miles from the park's main entrance. If you plan to visit the Everglades National Park for a full day or even a half day, you will probably want to drive to Flamingo to take in most of the park. Flamingo is situated on Florida Bay at the south terminus of the park's main road. Flamingo has most of the park's facilities and amenities including a marina, boat rentals, lodging, restaurant, store, and gas station. At the time of this writing (2/06), Flamingo and all of its facilities were closed due to damage from Hurricane Wilma. (I will update this review when I learn that repairs have been completed. But if you read this review and have found out that Flamingo has indeed been re-opened, please drop me an e-mail. In the meantime, here is a website that lists the Everglades closures: http://www.nps.gov/applications/parks/ever/ppdocuments/Park_Facilities_Update_Feb8.pdf )
It's worth highlighting the fact that we visited the Everglades in February. If you are able, winter is likely the best time of the year to visit the park. Summer visitors have reported difficulties with mosquitoes and other insects, heat and suffocating humidity. Although it was mostly cloudy, we encountered none of these problems and had a very pleasant visit.
ANOTHER TIDBIT
If you follow Route 9336 from Florida City to the park's main entrance, you'll see a place called "Robert Is Here". You can't miss it. It's visible over a field from about a half mile away. The roof of the structure says "ROBERT IS HERE". It is a fruit stand turned tourist trap. (I don't believe the term "tourist trap" is necessarily derogatory. Often times they are quick 15 minute stops to entertain the kids during a long car ride.) "Robert Is Here" is indeed a large, thriving fruit stand stocked with exotic tropical fruit. We picked up a couple of pounds of manzanos (baby bananas or apple bananas). At $1.25 a pound, they were considerably more expensive than conventional bananas These tiny bananas are about two inches long. They are a lot of work for about two small bites, but the cost and effort were certainly worth it for this new experience. The fruit stand also serves dozens of different tasty milkshakes and tropical drinks. They have many sauces, other food items and souvenirs like four-dollar coconut monkeys. They have an animal exhibit behind the building where visitors will see donkeys, iguanas, goats, emus, chickens and turtles. PETA would likely be ticked off, but the kids will have a great time. "Robert Is Here" Fruit Stand is located at the corner of Rt.9336 (SW 344th St.) and SW 192nd Ave... where you'll tale a left turn on your way to the park.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you appreciate the splendor of watching animals in their native habitat, then you'll definitely enjoy Everglades National Park. We thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit. The Anhinga Trail has an enormous amount of diverse wildlife. If you are driving to the Keys from Miami or Lauderdale, make it a point to spend a bit of time at Everglades National Park. Entrance fee is $10 per private vehicle., good for 7 days.
TO SEE OUR FLORIDA PHOTOS, PLEASE VISIT MY TRAVEL WEBSITE:
www.mikebechtol.com
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: December-February
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
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radioroger
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Location: Rural Ohio
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