Into the Everglades

Monday, June 27 - We braved the mosquitoes this morning and got unhooked, and got on the road about 10:00 (after I spent a couple hours on the blog).  We headed across Hwy 41 into the Big Cypress National Preserve on the north side of the road, and the Everglades National Park on the south side. 

We pulled into a picnic area across the road from a viewing center, and crossing the dirt road at the viewing center was this big, old gator.  He got tired and laid down about the time I got ready with the camera, but he was cooperative otherwise.  When we first spotted him, he was up on all 4 legs walking.

We drove down to Everglade City and stopped at the National Park Visitor Center there, and at a hardware store looking for mosquito nets for our heads (they were out, of course).  It was a nice little town with lots of airboats just waiting to take us for a ride, but we decided not to go out there (we may still have to do this).  Then we drove back up to Hwy 41 and continued on our way.  Our next stop was the HP Williams Viewing Center, which had a boardwalk area, but also there was a 15-mile loop road here that followed a river or canal.  So we unhooked the car and went exploring in the Explorer.  We saw lots of gators on this drive, probably about 20, but the most impressive was our second stop where there were 6 gators lying in the water.

We actually came back here and ate our lunch in the car while we watched them.  But along this drive we saw at least 3 gators up on the bank, and one slithered into the water as we watched.

We saw turtles on this drive, and lots of different kinds of birds.  We are not "birders" but it is easy to be interested in the wide variety of birds we've seen during the last two years. 

Our other interesting wildlife find was a raccoon.  He even stood up and looked at us, but the camera wasn't quite ready for his pose. This was our second raccoon today, and for the trip.

The everglades has many faces, and we think of it as a jungle with all the swamp growth and mangrove trees, but it also has huge clearings, that are very marshy.

 We passed what must be the smallest free-standing post office in the world here.  Didn't stop for literature but it would be interesting to know what year it was built.  Can't have too many people working here, I would think.

We finally left this area and headed on to Homestead (Florida City) where we will be spending the next two nights.  We drove 105 miles today, and it was all very interesting.  We continued to see alligators all day in the waterways along the highway, but we are still waiting to see our first panther.  The campground where we stayed last night had both panthers and bears in the area, but all we saw was a raccoon, several squirrels, and that alligator in the river there.  The campground we are now at is not too wonderful -- has lots of full-time residents which usually means a lot of junk around the trailers, but it will serve our purpose for the next two days while we explore the Everglades.  I made Joe take me back to the crossroads (18 miles) to the casino tonight, but we are now back from that trip, a little lighter in the wallet, unfortunately, and ready to go to bed.  Today was a good day!