Three years ago, the kids and I went to visit my friend Sonya who was stationed in Florida. She took us to an area of the Everglades that was teeming with alligators. I knew I wanted to return while we were in Florida this year and I wanted P.K. to be there with us this time around.
I emailed Sonya (who is now stationed in Germany) and asked her if she remembered where she took us. She didn't, so I chose one of the areas on the east coast as that is the side where she lived. As soon as we arrived, I knew it wasn't the same spot.
We skipped the visitors center and drove into the park. Our first stop was the Royal Palms area. We were disappointed that we didn't see one single alligator.
We did see this cool heron.
It flew away while Rachel was trying to strike a pose.
There was a very small gift store at the Royal Palms area. We went in and talked to the lady working. She said it was too hot and if we wanted to see alligators we would have to come back in December or January. I knew that wasn't one hundred percent true because Sonya took us in July. P.K. suggested we head back to the main visitors center and talk to the rangers.
We didn't see live Florida panthers which do live in Everglades National Park, but we did find the next best thing outside the visitors center.
A Florida panther statue.
The rangers said if we waited until it was later in the day (it was about 4:30 at the time), we were more likely to see some. They also said if we drove all the way down to the Flamingo area we might also see crocodiles and manatees. We decided to watch a movie about Everglades National Park at the visitors center. It was very educational and we all learned something we didn't know. One thing we learned is that the stuff that grows on top of the water is called periphyton. The ranger in the movie encouraged park visitors to pick it up, squish it and smell it. P.K. kept saying the ranger said to taste it. He knew he didn't, but we all thought it was funny.
Another thing we learned in the video was how very small changes in elevation affect what plants grow.
We left the visitors center to head about 30 miles into the park to the Flamingo area. It is the farthest south we could go in the park with the exception of the campground. We decided to stop at almost all of the marked areas on our way.
Hannah made the first animal sighting. At the visitors center there were buttons we could push. Each one played an animal sound and showed the identification. From that, we knew we were hearing baby alligators in the area. Hannah spotted a baby alligator. It was probably about 18 inches long and about a year and a half old.
Another area had a small pond. We came across a sign that said not to go beyond that point because it was a protected bird nesting area. By the looks of this feather, something went past that point.
It was probably about 6:30 before we reached Flamingo. We were not disappointed, as another visitor almost immediately pointed out two crocodiles swimming around the marina.
This one stood sunning on the opposite bank.
PK and the kids enjoy ice cream while they watched the crocodile sunning on the opposite shore.
After we spent some time at Flamingo, we decided to head back to the entrance and since it was cooler out we stopped back at Royal Palm. The sunset was gorgeous.
We walked out the path and I had my eyes on the water. Aaron was about three feet in front of me when he spotted this pair of alligators just off the walk. He was no farther than a foot from them when he saw them. He claims he wasn't at all afraid of the gators, but when I gasped I almost gave him a heart attack. Well, I almost had one when I saw my child a foot away from two eight foot plus alligators!
We also saw a lot of swamp apples. Aaron and Hannah thought these were cool as they heard about them on one of their favorite shows.
We left the park very excited to have seen some great wildlife. It was over a two hour drive back to Marco Island or I think we would have gone again. Maybe we will make it back on our next trip to Florida.
