Back in March of this year we spent a month exploring Florida, including Orlando, Miami and the Fort Lauderdale area. But most exciting of all the places that we visited was the Everglades National Park. Located on the Southern tip of Florida, the 1.5 Million acre preserve is one of the most famous wetland preserves in the USA, and is home to animals such as alligators, manatees, turtles, and so many species of birds (See my post on the Everglades Birds here)
On our first day in the park we hiked four trails. The first trail was the Anhinga Trail, a 1.2km (0.8 mile) boardwalk trail that meanders through the sawgrass marsh and is named after the anhinga bird that can be seen fishing along the path. It is one of the more popular trails in the park as it has a high abundance of wildlife. It is also wheelchair friendly and great for children. We spotted our first alligators on this trail.
The second trail we hiked was named the Gumbo Limbo Trail after the gumbo limbo tree. This trail is a short 600m loop (0.4 miles) that is lined with dense trees. Really beautiful but you really have to look a bit harder to find the wildlife on this one.
Trail number three that we hiked that day was named the Pay-Hay-Okee Trail. This trail was the shortest at only 260m (0.16 miles). But the raised boardwalk loops over that "river of grass" and has a birding platform to spy on all the beautiful birds.
Our last hike of day one was the Mahogany Hammock Trail, another short trail at only 800m (0.5 miles). This is another boardwalk trail that meanders through dense hammock forest and is home to the largest living mahogany tree in the United States.
After a day of hiking we stayed in the park at Long Pine Key Campground.
Our second day in The Everglades wasn't as eventful as the previous. We spent most of the day relaxing. We did do two small trails, though. The first was the trail around the Visitor Centre, which I don't remember the name of. The second was the Christian Point Trail. This trail is 2.9km (1.8 miles) or, at least, it used to be. The trail was not maintained and it was so hard to follow the path. We ended up turning back partway through the hike after we lost the path. We did finish our day by booking a backcountry canoe trip, which you can read about here.
After spending a couple days exploring outside the park we came back and booked a night at Flamingo Campground. We also hiked the 3.2km (2 mile) trail called the Bayshore Loop Trail. The trailhead for this hike was conveniently located within the campground. The path takes you through the mangroves and along the shore of Florida Bay. We even spotted a shark while hiking here!
The remainder of our time in The Everglades was spend canoeing in the backcountry which was a wonderful experience. I loved The Everglades National Park and would recommend it to anyone visiting Florida. There are so many trails for all abilities, multiple campgrounds, and it's great for wildlife watching, especially if you're in to birding.
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