The southern main entrance to the Everglades National Park is around twenty miles from the campground. We left around 11:00 am, and spent the whole day at the park. It is $10.00 per vehicle, but that covers seven consecutive days of entry. Many parts of the Everglades are only accessible by boat, so we really saw very little along the road. We pulled off at several lakes and ponds, and we did see one alligator and a few birds, but I think I expected to see a lot more.
The sawgrass as far as the eye can see was impressive, and the bald cypress trees were something to see. It would be interesting to see the same area during the rainy season when everything is green…
The Flamingo visitors center is on the coast, well into the Everglades. It is very small and not very impressive, considering the number of visitors this park must have every year. There is also a small marina and a little retail store. On the dock were a couple of pelicans.
On the way back we pulled over a few more times to take some pictures.
The last stop we made was a place called West Lake. There is a mangrove forest all along the edges of what I think is a saltwater (brackish) lake. The walkway was very similar to the one we walked along in John Pennekamp State Park–a raised walkway through the mangroves. The water was a very strange green color.
Just before leaving the park, we stopped and took a few more pictures of the cypress forest.
After our long tour of the Everglades, we made a quick stop a the Robert Is Here fruit stand. I got some honeybell tangelos, some cucumbers, and some key lime products. We have brochures for this fruit stand at the campground, so now I can tell people who ask what it is like…
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