Miami, Florida // 18, 19 June
Our first destination in Everglades National Park was the Earnest F. Coe Visitor Center. We needed to get our America The Beautiful (annual National Parks) pass and only certain places issued them, this visitor centre being one. The Everglades is huge with different areas to visit so it was great to get all the info. I also got a special little stamp booklet so we could record all our National Park visits. A great souvenir! The tour at Shark Valley was on our priority list and we had booked for the next day, so we headed off to make the most of our new America The Beautiful pass at Biscayne National Park.
Our Shark Valley tour was first up in the morning, we’d booked that slot with the hope of it being a little cooler and avoiding the afternoon storms. The tour takes you on a 15 mile loop and it was really interesting learning from the guides about the landscape, vegetation and wildlife. We headed off and immediately started spotting great blue herons (the biggest birds in the Everglades) and snowy egrets. I spotted a little gator swimming in the shallows and Robin spotted a huge one on the other side. We learnt how the different vegetation created homes for different wildlife and also built up higher areas, called hammocks, on the porous limestone. Water flows down from Lake Okeechobee and in the summer parts of the Everglades usually dry up but not this year due to lots of hurricanes in the area late last year. It was amazing to see so much water and wildlife. Looking into the water along the side of the road we spotted so many different types of fish, some of them huge, and turtles. The Shark Valley loop also includes a lookout tower which was fantastic to get an idea of the scale of the Everglades.
We couldn’t leave the Everglades without taking an airboat ride! There were lots of tour operators on the outskirts of the National Park who are permitted to take visitors into the National Park. It was fun and very loud! We kept our eyes peeled for alligators and spotted lots of the same water birds we saw on our Shark Valley tour. The guide toured us round the waterways and past an (unoccupied) alligator nest. On the way back we tracked through slowly and Robin spotted a gator in the mangroves. There were probably many more hiding in the shade, even the gators need to stay out of the Florida heat sometimes. On our way back we caught glimpses of one or two more, then got to see the huge resident gator who hangs around the airboat docks. He was so dark, glossy and still that he looked fake. Apparently that is a common mistake and not a good one to make. They also had a little information session afterwards where we learned about how the Everglades has changed due to the population growth in Florida and also introduction of non-native species.
