Shark Valley has alligators and turtles and birds, but no sharks. There is a freshwater canal that runs along the road, and during the dry season it is teeming with wildlife. The entire biking/walking trail is twelve miles, and I think I went in about 2 1/2 miles, then turned around and walked back to the visitor center. There is a tram tour that covers the entire trail, but I wanted to get close up to the water and the wildlife, so I just walked. The first part of the trail is fairly crowded with people who take the tram tour but want to do a bit of walking, but farther into the trail, there were mostly just bicyclists and me.
I took a bunch of pictures of alligators, some very close up.
There were also a lot of big birds and some turtles.
The landscaping here is different than anyplace on the planet.
In places there is no topsoil at all, just the limestone rock “coral” that was once under the ocean.
Shark valley was my favorite area of the everglades. There was a ton of wildlife, and although the drive to flamingo was interesting and I loved the dwarf cypress trees, there were long stretches of the road where there was really nothing to see. I think I would like to go back with the bikes and do the whole twelve miles.
Here are a few more of the pictures I took.
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