The Everglades , a Safari in America ! !
Written: Sep 05 '02 (Updated May 17 '05)
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Pros: Teaming with wildlife, amazing sites, discoveries and experiences
Cons: mosquitoes and more mosquitoes
very hot and humid in the summer
The Bottom Line: For unique experiences with nature this is the place to go.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: Everglades National Park |
My wife and I have been fortunate enough to visit many national parks across this great nation of ours in our thirty years of marriage. From Acadia Park in Maine to the Redwoods of California we have enjoyed our experiences. In all those years I never visited Everglades National Park even though I live relatively closer to it than other parks. I have also visited Florida many times and never gotten there. I was never drawn to it because all I saw were pictures of the endless "Sea of grass". How interesting could that be? How wrong I was!!
In April, as a start to a vacation traveling through the Florida keys, we flew into Miami, rented a car, and drove an hour or so to Homestead Florida and checked into a Hampton Inn. That afternoon we started our love affair with the park.
The park has a few entrances. There is one up by Everglades city. There, I have read there is an interesting boat ride to be had. Another entrance is in Shark Valley which is about thirty miles west of Miami. It features a tram ride inside the park run by a private contractor with park rangers giving commentary. Some very good friends of ours did this ride and told us it was awesome, full of animal sightings, and the views from an overlook tower it takes you to are beautiful.
We opted for the main entrance that is less than twenty minutes from Homestead. We entered the "Royal Palms" visitors center. The fee was eight dollars for the car. It is good for seven days. Also available are other passes if you plan to visit more than on National park in a year. Less than an hour away is Biscayne National underwater Park. I hope to write a review on our recent visit there soon. Also fairly close, yet so far away, is the Dry Tortugas National Park. I did write a review on it. It is awesome !
The visitor center is a good place to get acquainted with the park. There is an informative short film, a lot of information to read, and the park Rangers at the desk to answer questions, give suggestions, and sign up for naturalist walks and talks. If you have time for one of them I strongly recommend going.
The visitors center is also where you can get your National Passport book canceled. If you don't know what that is read my review under "National Parks and Reserves" My heading is "Passport to your National Parks all the info you might want to know" It is a great program to build interest, enthusiasm and education in our wonderful parks.
There is a road that continues from the visitors center to a place called Flamingo. On the way there are many turnoffs, signs to read, and trails to walk. You can even stop and rent a canoe. I'm not so sure I'm ready for that after seeing the alligators we saw from the road and trails.
There is camping and a other indoor accommodations available in the park. Call the parks for further info or get it on the internet at www.nps.gov/ If you do go to the site remember to get facts there and feelings and the nitty gritty at Epinions.
We took the nearby Anhinga trail. It is a half mile boardwalk trail that has markers with info on it. There is also a ranger led walk at designated times. I do suggest one of them. My wife and I took many pictures. Then started our walk. We went to see alligators, and alligators we saw!! April is the end of the dry season and much of the water is gone. What are left are pools of water where the animals congregate. We saw at least twenty alligators in one spot. The walk is built over one of these huge pools.
There is nothing as eerie to me as watching an alligator, with just it's eyes showing, slinking silently and effortlessly through the water. There is barely a ripple or sound. Just those eyes.
We enjoyed ourselves on this vacation and visit to the Everglades, we decided to do it again in July with some of our kids. So what, that the mosquitoes are in clouds attacking you, and so what, the temperature is unbelievably hot and humid. And so what, that you don't see quite as many animals due to the ever growing habitat from rainfall.
Actually with all that we still had a great day at the Everglades. One of the highlights was returning to the Anhinga trail. When went just before dusk. The trails never close. Our three daughters age twelve, fourteen, and twenty enjoyed looking for wildlife. At one point they spotted an alligator close to the walk. We all went to see it. Suddenly it made a quick move that surprised us with very loud splash. It got our blood pumping!!
A bit later with them slightly ahead we hear "There's an alligator on the walk!!" It was pretty cool seeing this eight foot alligator just hanging out there but we had a problem. To return to our car we had to pass him. It was voted that dad would stand guard in front of it and they would walk around me one by one. "Hey!! Who am I Crocodile Dundee? What do I know about wrestling gators?" Somehow they all got around safely. I suppose he looked at my large body and thought I was too much to eat at one sitting anyway.
We continued on the path toward our car. We read some more of the signs and noticed the different habitat on some areas that were just a few feet higher than sea level. We all noticed these huge grass hoppers all over the place. They were three and four foot long!! Nah, how about three and four inches? That's more like it. Well that is pretty big. They were all paired up it seems, one on top of the other. My girls pointed this out to me. Isn't it nice to have a friend?
The park also is a birdwatchers paradise. We saw heron, storks, egrets, and scores of other birds. We didn't get to see any osprey or eagles that hunt in the park.
There are also so many other animals. I didn't know that the Everglades is the only place that alligators and crocodiles co-exist. The park also boasts bobcats. We didn't see any but we did get to see some kind of fox crossing the road as we drove on our way out of the park.
The next day we went to Everglades Alligator Farm. It's interesting watching the quaint alligator show that was very simple and up close.It was fun and informative. There are some huge alligators on the farm. We took the noisy, but fun, airboat ride. It takes you through some slow moving water where you see turtles and more alligators. Then it's flying time. This thing revs up and really moves. We did a few three-sixties. We got a bit wet from the spray and some real thrills. The kids really enjoyed it. You can do this farm in about two hours. Unfortunately I don't remember how much it cost for the admission and airboat ride. I can tell you I am fairly watchful of my dollars and do felt it was a good value. I would remember if it wasn't.
After the Everglades area we visited Biscayne National Park, the Florida keys, did boating, snorkeling, enjoyed the Key West Duvall Street experience, stayed at the fine Wyndham hotel with pool and all etc. When we asked the children what they enjoyed most of the whole week the all replied "The Everglades!" Now that's a great endorsement.
I hope you get to see this unique and alien world, The Everglades!
Everglades National Park is listed in the book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. To read about the book and see some of the other listings go to
1,000 Places to See Before You Die
other reviews by popsrocks
Mallory Square
http://www.epinions.com/content_80668429956
Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_74431499908
Dry Tortugas National Parkoff Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_75011886724
Hampton Inn, Key West
http://www.epinions.com/content_74483338884
Wyndham, Casa Marina, Key West
http://www.epinions.com_75390619268
Hampton Inn, Islamorada Key
http://www.epinions.com/content_74425929348
Robies Charters, Rentals, and Tarpon Feeding
http://www.epinions.com/content_80761556612
Biscayne National Park
http://www.epinions.com/content_78785056388
Hampton Inn, Homestead, Florida City area. Centrally located between the Everglades and Biscayne National park
http://www.epinions.com/content_77241290372
National Park System
http://www.epinions.com/content_2908004484
Passport to National Parks
http://www.epinions.com/content_76095131268
A couple of helpful books
National Parks for Dummies A great book for planning a trip
National Geographic Guide to National Parks A good reference book
MY favorite Map.
2005 American Map Road Atlas: Large Scale - Large Type
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: December-February
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview
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