Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park - Florida

December 01, 2014

12/1/2014

Everglades National Park Overview Video:

Becky and I continued Southeast about 100 miles to Everglades National Park. We enjoyed the scenery as we passed the agriculture land. Lots of vegetables, strawberries, and landscaping plants being grown. Farmers markets are available it seemed like every couple miles.

Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades. In the United States, it is the largest tropical wilderness, the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River, and is visited on average by one million people each year. It is the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone. It has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, and a Wetland of International Importance, one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists. Although most U.S. national parks preserve unique geographic features, Everglades National Park was the first created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The Everglades are a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing .25 miles (0.40 km) per day out of Lake Okeechobee, southwest into Florida Bay. The Park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America, contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere, is home to 36 threatened or protected species including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, and supports 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. The majority of South Florida's fresh water, which is stored in the Biscayne Aquifer, is recharged in the park.

Humans have lived for thousands of years in or around the Everglades, until plans arose in 1882 to drain the wetlands and develop the recovered land for agricultural and residential use. As the 20th century progressed, water flow from Lake Okeechobee was increasingly controlled and diverted to enable explosive growth of the South Florida metropolitan area. The park was established in 1934 to protect the quickly vanishing Everglades, and dedicated in 1947 as massive canal building projects were initiated across South Florida. The ecosystems in Everglades National Park have suffered significantly from human activity, and restoration of the Everglades is a politically charged issue in South Florida.
We recently received our lifetime pass to all National Parks and was looking forward to camping at 1/2 price. Cost into the Park was free, and camping was $8.00 per night at the Flamingo camp grounds.
Clean Rest Rooms and outside dish washing sink, No Shower

No water or electricity at the sites, restrooms, very clean, fresh water, and dump station are available at the entrance to the camp ground. The sites are very well groomed, vegetation between each site for privacy. Paved pads.

The Anhinga Trail is a short trail (about 0.4 miles) in the Everglades National Park. Located 4 miles from the park entrance, it starts at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. The trail is a paved walkway and a boardwalk over Taylor Slough, a freshwater sawgrass marsh. Abundant wildlife is visible from the trail, including alligators, turtles, anhingas,herons, and egrets. it is one of the most popular trails in the Park. On November 5, 1996, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
In 2003, tourists witnessed a fight between an alligator and a Burmese python which went on for 24 hours, until a larger alligator joined the fight and the snake escaped. Video and news coverage of the fight was widespread and brought attention to the spread of the python, an invasive species, in the Everglades.