Everglades

02/27/21—03/05/21

We left the house on Saturday morning and took the scenic route down the middle of the state instead of the boring turnpike. We checked into our hotel in Florida City and then went right to Everglades National Park.

The pandemic continued to dictate our vacations. We booked some trips for the summer, in the hopes that things would be safe then, but we had to stay close to home for our 35th Anniversary. We decided to go to the Everglades for a couple of days before relaxing in the Palm Beach Shores resort we stayed in last Fall. We figured we could stay outdoors most of the time, away from people.

Since it was mid-afternoon, we quickly went to Royal Palm and walked both the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails. We saw water and flowers on the first trail, along with the namesake (an anhinga) and even an alligator along the end of the trail. The second trail took us by a pond and through a gumbo limbo forest.

We ended our first day with a drive down a dirt road to Hole in the Donut Wetlands. We then finished off at Long Pine Key Nature Trail, which was nice until the path got flooded and we couldn’t travel any further.

We left the hotel early Sunday morning and drove all the way down to Flamingo. One section of the road showed us where they perform scheduled burns in the park to rejuvenate it. We went on a hike of the Coastal Prairie, which took us through a prairie of grass and dead trees. The hike was 6 miles each way, though, so we backtraced and did the Bayshore Loop instead. It took us through a thick forest of flowers along the Florida Bay.

In Flamingo, we saw vultures along the Guy Bradley Trail, and then ate lunch in the car.

After lunch, we started to head back to the hotel, stopping first at Christian Point, which was a desolate trail that we only traveled along for a short period of time. We also visited Coot Bay Pond.

Our next stop was Snake Bight Trail. This was a fantastic, wide, tree-lined trail down to the end of the Snake Canal into Florida Bay. It was nearly 4 miles roundtrip. What we really liked were the hundreds of wild orchids living in the trees.

Mahogany Hammock was a boardwalk that took us to a large mahogany tree and a marsh with cypress trees and yellow flowers. It also showed a picture of what the Everglades looked like over a hundred years ago versus today.

 

We ended our time in the Everglades with a great view of a great wood stork and great egret. We had fun on all the trails.