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Everglades National Park - Technically, NOT a swamp
- Kayla Marker
- Apr 13, 2022
- 10 min read
Where to begin about Everglades National Park! It’s bounties of wildlife? It being one of the three largest national parks in the lower 48? Our run in with the cops during our time camping in Long Pine Key? Don’t worry - we didn’t do anything wrong. Actually, I’m not going to start with any of that. You’ll have to wait for the good stuff! Of course, we have to begin with some history so you can appreciate how grand (and in my biased opinion, underrated) the Everglades really are.
First and foremost, if you don’t know already, humans actually really suck sometimes. The Everglades, located in Southern Florida, once stretched all the way to Lake Okeechobee in Florida. But eventually, greed for money and oil, the need for transportation, (all powered by humans), began to make the Everglades much much smaller. It is now a whopping 1.5 million acres- but still, it used to be MUCH larger. It is hard to imagine a world without Miami, or the Tamiami trail, (the highway that connects Miami to Tampa), but that is the world we have grown to know. It makes me sad to see how much smaller the Everglades is now. Alright, alright, I’ll get off my soapbox.
The Everglades is made up into four different sections. Shark Valley, Flamingo, the Main Park Road, and Everglades City (or the Thousand Islands) on the Gulf Coast side. I’ll get into more detail about each of these later (except Everglades City, we have yet to visit this part). In the 1900’s, early colonial settlers thought that the slow-moving river that is part of the Everglades could be great farmland. At this time, they began to essentially drain the wetlands, which created a lot of harm for the various ecosystems that depended on them. Luckily though, various groups, conservationists, etc. banded together to create the Everglades National Park in 1947. The history of the Everglades is so vast, I could talk about it for days. I won’t now (please, don’t get too excited), but I encourage you to read some more on your own.
There is a $35 entrance fee to get into the park, but it is good for one week. Again, I encourage you to get the annual park pass if you visit more than five parks a year that require an entrance fee. The Everglades has a main park road that is 38-miles long. It connects Ernest Co. Visitor Center (the main visitor center), to the very bottom of the park, which is called Flamingo. Along the way you can stop at the Royal Palm portion of the park, Pinelands, and other various hikes, and as you continue south, there are more trails and a few kayaking opportunities. I’m going to pause here for a moment to clear up a common misconception. The Everglades does in fact have both alligators and crocodiles. Alligators live in freshwater, while crocodiles live in saltwater. So, the further you go south towards Flamingo, increases the likelihood of seeing a crocodile, due to the ample amount of saltwater. Therefore, I do not kayak in the Flamingo part of the Everglades! I’m sure it’s fine, but I’m not a gambler.
We have visited the Everglades on two separate occasions, once in October 2021, and again in March 2022 with our two friends. We were able to spend more time in the park during our March visit, so I’ll spend most of my time speaking about that.
When we visited in March, we first stopped at Ernest Co. Visitor Center. Here they have a park store, you can get your passport stamp, they have various exhibits you can look at, and a pond in the back where you can birdwatch. I love visitor centers. Dakota loves looking at the t-shirts (even though he rarely buys one). I love getting my magnet, getting my park stamp, and soaking in all the knowledge. I suggest stopping and taking in everything they have to offer. It's so much fun! From here we kept venturing south on the park road to the Royal Palm section. But before we turned, there was a little watering hole on the side of the road where we saw our first alligator. We came to see him every time we drove by. Of course, we turned around, stopped, and got out of the car, (we parked responsibly and remained at a safe distance) to gawk. Then by human nature, some other people saw us looking, they got curious, so they looked too. Once there were too many people, our group decided to leave. Remember, we are in the animals' space; their home. It is so important to respect it. By keeping your distance (in the Everglades it is 15 feet away), cleaning up after yourself, etc. It really is not that hard, so just do it! The reason national parks were made is so they can be preserved and accessible to everyone for time to come. It is our job, our responsibility, to ensure that when visiting these parks, they are in BETTER condition than when we arrived. Don’t you want your kids, and grandchildren to be able to experience our parks in a better way than what we did?
At Royal Palm there is the Anhinga Trail (my favorite), and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. Both are short, loop trails that are accessible to everyone, and the Anhinga Trail is a boardwalk. Now beware, for whatever reason at the trail parking lot, there are vultures that enjoy eating the rubber from vehicles. Many vehicles have tarps over them (that you can get at the park store that is here as well), to prevent this from happening. If you think, oh what are the chances. Don’t risk it! We were able to witness this happen when we visited in October and there was a vulture enjoying a tarpless SUV. On the Anhinga Trail, we saw roughly 15 alligators, some basking, some swimming. It was awesome. This trail is known for its abundant wildlife. We saw plenty of Anhinga’s, (a bird this trail is named after) too. Anhinga’s are awesome. They are diving birds, and they can dive up to 20 feet into the water. Because of this, their wings are not waterproof. On the trail, you frequently see them air drying their wings, like the picture below.
Once we completed those two trails, it ended our visit to the park for that day. From here we ventured down to Key West where we went to Dry Tortugas (you can read more about that in our other blog). After we went to Dry Tortugas, we headed all the way back to the Everglades to camp in the Long Pine Key Campground for three nights. Our first night we didn't arrive until 6 pm or so. We had to quickly put the tent together before dark, and might I say, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. There is a pond at the campground as well where you can fish. We bought cheap $10 fishing poles from Walmart, got our fishing licenses, and fished along the bank of the pond. While we did not catch anything, we were treated to seeing an alligator who liked the sound of our casting, and we high-tailed it out of there.
The following day, we set on our adventure to drive all the way to Flamingo. We made various stops along the way at the Pinelands trail, Pay-hay-okee trail, Mahogany Hammock trail, and the West Lake Boardwalk. None of these trails were especially long or hard. Each trail we were greeted by various birds, lizards that changed colors, and lots of flora and fauna. At the West Lake Boardwalk there are some picnic tables overlooking the water where we had a picnic lunch and were visited by the very charismatic American Crow. There are a lot of other stops along the way to Flamingo, some hiking trails that we did not do, along with kayaking points, too. After the West Lake Boardwalk, our next stop was to Flamingo. First, we stopped into the visitor center, got some information, and a list of trails that surround the visitor center. We stopped to look around the docks to see crocodiles and manatees. That day we only saw one manatee, however when Dakota and I went in October, we saw roughly 15-20 here. At the Flamingo portion of the Everglades, there is also another campground (beware of mosquitos), a marina store that has various camping necessities, (along with ice cream that we definitely treated ourselves to), and the park is currently building a restaurant and a hotel. After we spent some time at Flamingo walking around and looking at the Gulf, we headed back on the 38-mile park road to eat dinner and eventually headed back to our campsite.
Now, this is the part you all have been waiting for. We all were pretty wiped out, so we headed to bed early. Around 1 am or so, Dakota and I were woken to the sound of a car horn, someone yelling, and a helicopter panning the campground with a spotlight. Which shined right on our tent! At first, we were so tired we weren’t sure what the heck was going on. In the distance I heard someone say, “He’s alive.” I opened the window to our tent, and sure enough there was a helicopter just above the tree line. We woke our friends and let them know the situation, and not too long after we saw cop cars with their lights on, and the sound of police officers accessing the situation. We tried listening to see what was happening, but no luck. Eventually, we all had to use the restroom, but weren’t sure if it was safe. The four of us walked to the officers to ask if it was safe to use the bathroom, to which he said, “Oh yeah, everything is safe now.” To which in my typical sarcastic mannerisms, I said “Now?!” Anyways, he assured us everything was perfectly fine. There were roughly 10-15 officers, a mix of park rangers and Miami-Dade sheriffs. One car was spotlighting someone’s tent. We all went back to our tent, tried searching the news for information but we did not have any luck. We all went back to bed and woke up the next morning still unsure of our surroundings and confused. We got ready for the day and headed to Shark Valley. We still did not know what happened, but at the end of the day on our way back to our campsite we stopped to ask the host where she told us more information. But, since we had to wait all day, I’m going to tell you what we did at Shark Valley first, so you have to wait just like we did - ha!
From Ernest Co. Visitor Center, it is roughly a 1 hour and 30-minute drive to Shark Valley. At Shark Valley there are a few tails, but this part of the park is mostly known for its 15-mile loop that has the Shark Valley Observation tower right smack dab in the middle. There are no sharks here in this north-eastern part of the park, but even though it is subtle, there is a valley. The Shark Valley Observation tower was built to watch for wildfires in the park. Originally, the loop was only 7 miles long to the Observation Tower. The road was built because one man thought that this part of the Everglades would be a prime spot for oil. To his surprise, he was wrong. There wasn’t any oil. When the National Park Service got this land, they didn’t know what to do with this road, thus came the 15-mile loop. You can walk, bike, or take the tram around this loop. Bikes can be rented from the visitor center here as well. In October, Dakota and I decided to take the tram. It was super educational, and I would recommend it if you enjoy knowledge and history, have small children who enjoy learning, or if you do not feel like biking 15-miles (no judgement here!). However, this time, the four of us decided to bike the loop. I’m so glad we did. We saw over 60 alligators that day - easy. I’m sure there are more we did not see. We saw small alligators, large alligators, baby alligators, alligators basking in the sun, alligators swimming, you name it, we probably saw it. It took us roughly 3 hours to bike all 15-miles, and man, what a proud moment for us all. The first 7 miles were pretty tough because we were going against the wind the entire time. But we stopped at the Observation Tower to see 20-miles in all directions, we had a picnic lunch, and re-gained our energy. On the way back, it was much easier. At points the only people we could see were ourselves. It was so awesome.
After our visit to Shark Valley, we went down the road to Everglades Safari Park where we took an airboat ride. They have a little store here, along with a restaurant where we had a quick snack. Our airboat ride was awesome. I love them so much - it really is a true experience of the Everglades; you get to go to a portion of the park that you wouldn’t be able to get to otherwise. I also really like Everglades Safari Park because they are educational, there is a nature walk, and an educational alligator show (NOT one where they wrestle alligators, or make them fight), they are also an approved concessioner of the park. After our visit, we headed back to our campsite where all our questions would be answered.
Nervously, we asked the host what had happened the night prior, unsure if she could even tell us. Now, I won’t go into too much detail because this is not my story to tell. But, she did tell us that there was a camper at the campground who was communicating with his significant other and he threatened to create harm. Officers could not exactly pinpoint where he was, which is why they had the helicopter spotlighting the campground. This is not what we expected to hear at all! All in all, though, everyone was okay, and in the end that’s all that matters.
We went to our site, made dinner, and began packing up as it was our last night camping. We were all super sad because we enjoyed our time here so much. It was a beautiful campground that was well taken care of, and we loved the Everglades. The next morning, we began packing, got in the car, donated all our extra gear, and turned right on the main park road to leave the Everglades. Sure enough, when we passed that watering hole that same alligator was there basking in the sun. We got to the airport, and that ended our trip to the Everglades. A visit packed with nature, animals, fun and laughter. The Everglades are beginning to become our favorite park. We will definitely be going back! Remember, if you can't find us at home, you can find us in the parks...
With safe travels and love,
Dakota and Kayla
P.S. Dakota wanted me to tell you a quick story of a creepy night sky experience we had while camping at Long Pine Key. Of course, we were all admiring the stars when Dakota pointed out that there was this one (what we think) star sweeping across the night sky, and fading into nothing. Every 8 seconds or so the star would come back to its original spot and do the same thing 14 or so times in a row, in perfect repetition, and then it stopped. Possible UFO? If you have a logical explanation for this, please comment and let us know!
All information presented in this blog has been taken directly from the National Park’s website. All opinions are my own and I do not receive any payment for them. This information and more can be found in the link below.
https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm
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