smittenbyu: (relaxed)
December 27, 2009

We drove north to the other entrance of the Everglades, towards Everglades City. This side of the park is more commercialized. We first stopped at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. We caught the tram that goes in a loop for 2.5 hours. One could also walk the loop or bike the loop. We chose the lazy way and took the tram. There were a lot more people on this side of the park than at Homestead side of the park. And almost all activities here were charged.

It was a nice ride with a guide on board sharing all about this side of the park. We saw more birds here than we did at the other side. Mostly because it's the wetter part of the park.

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Half way through the ride, we stopped at the observation tower that gave us a full view of the park from above! This was very different type of habitat than what we had seen the day before!
Read more... with pictures )
smittenbyu: (relaxed)
December 26, 2009

We got up leisurely, had breakfast, enjoyed the surprisingly chilly morning, wondering if we were actually in Florida! I drove us to the Everglades National Park. We stopped at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center and signed up for some of activities coming up in the following days. I had read that this was their busiest season and the Ranger was also very happy that we were there for five days!! He is always taken aback at visitors who come in wonder what they can fit into a day or even a few hours!! The National park only has about 1.4 million acres to explore!!

We headed onto our next stop, the Anhinga Trail. We joined a Park Ranger guided tour. We really enjoyed the tour. I think if we hadn't gone for the tour we would have just looked and thought, "ah pretty tree, pretty flower, pretty bird" and gotten bored in a day. Ranger Cindy was awesome. She shared a lot about the ecosystem, the birds that are local to the place, the river of grass and of course about its infamous dweller - the alligator.

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Read more...picture heavy )

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