Earlier this year, we took a long weekend trip to Key West. Along the way, we stopped at two different areas (entrances) in the Everglades. We weren’t sure what to expect. By the time we got there the first day, it was late afternoon and we didn’t have much time to walk around. Our boys weren’t happy – they wanted to explore more! We promised that we would stop back in a couple days after we drove to Key West.
To get there, we drove across Florida on I75 aka Alligator Alley. They were so many spots to pull off and look. We took our time and enjoyed the drive.
Driving on the highway, you don’t see the canal.
The view from one of the pull-offs.
I’m not sure what I expected, but it was definitely different! There is just so much open space (it is 1.5 million acres!!)! Our first day, we stopped at the Royal Palms entrance in Homestead. We walked the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. Gumbo limbo trees are so awesome (and I have NO pictures of them)! They would make an awesome (and totally natural) fence!
The birds along the Anhinga Trail are so used to people, that they don’t seem to notice. They just go about their business like there’s no one around.
We also drove partway to Flamingo, but the gas gauge was bordering on E (and I’m totally paranoid about running out of gas) so we turned around. Later we realized that there’s a gas station when you get to Flamingo (oops…apparently my map reading skills need work).
There are some geocaches that we stopped for, but cell signal is very iffy!!
I love driving on roads like this! It’s like an adventure!
Along the way we stopped at different walkways.
We wanted to walk out to this pond, but recent rains meant it was pretty flooded.
We almost didn’t stop at Shark Valley. People were parking along the road and it looked so SO crowded, but we decided to drive through the parking area and see if there were any open spots. There was and we had a quick lunch before setting off to explore. The trail is 15 miles round trip. We were definitely not up for a long hike and we didn’t have our bikes with us (they do offer a tram for a price), but we just walked down the trail a bit. There were alligators laying right along the trail!!
We saw a mama and her baby.
Look how tiny her baby is!
We were so glad we stopped! We’re planning to go back again when we have more time and the weather cools off. Have you ever been to the Everglades? What was your favorite place?
[…] since we visited Everglades NP several years ago and I found out there’s a campground 38 miles from the entrance, I’ve wanted to go. I […]