Kane and Kat were so excited to get to Everglades to see alligators and crocodiles! We arrived on Friday night and dry camped the first night, since we did not have a reservation till Saturday with electricity. As soon as we got set up, our kids and I hopped on our bikes and headed to the visitor center. We got a beautiful view of Florida Bay on the way there. Unfortunately, the Visitor Center was closed, but a passing ranger told us to head over by the marina and look for the crocodiles there. We could not get there quick enough! Success: Our first crocodile and black turkey vulture spotting!
It was a rainy second day. Mid afternoon, the kids and I loaded up our bikes and headed to the Snake Bight Trail to bike the path to the bay. We went about 1/4 mile to the trail. What a surprise-it was overgrown and no way could our hybrid bikes make it down this trail! No problem, I decided, we can head to another trail on the biking list: Bear Lake. We had to drive 2 miles down a very muddy, wet rode. Unloaded the bikes again and realized another trail that could not be biked on with our bikes! Oh well… we sure did try!
We started our day with the Mangrove Wilderness Tour. Before we left the marina, we saw multiple crocodiles and two manatees. The boat took us up the Buttonwood Canal through mangrove forest up to Coot’s Bay then on to Whitewater Bay. On the way back, we saw two bottlenose dolphins. We learned a little about the mangrove forests, air plants, birds and animals that live in the Everglades.
After lunch, we headed to Snake Bight Trail to do the hike on our feet(no bikes this time). We put on our mosquito spray and headed out. Well, I think our mosquito spray attracted the mosquitos, because within 5 minutes down the trail we were covered in mosquitos. And I mean covered! We turned around, I put the mosquito head net quickly on Kat and we booked it back to our Jeep. We gave up on hiking and headed to the Visitor Center to see the exhibits and for our kids to turn in their Junior Ranger books.
Here’s a pic of our campground. Definitely, not as beautiful as many of the other National Parks.
Kane had been wanting to hike the Anhinga Trail since we arrived. Unfortunately, it was about 35 miles from our campground toward the Ernst Coe entrance. In our National Park book, it rated the Anhinga Trail as the best hike in the park. So as we were leaving to head to the Florida Keys, we stopped at the Anhinga Trail. We saw so much wildlife! Great call by Kane!! 🙂
