Everglades Birthday

Just a warning, this is a long one.

For my bday this year, all I wanted was to go way down deep into the Everglades and explore a different area of the park that I had never been to before. We made plans to take a boat tour through the back-country waterways all the way at the bottom tip of mainland Florida out of Flamingo Marina. I also wanted to go slough slogging, where you are outfitted with a walking stick and go on a ranger-led expedition through the muck and the swamp in the heart of the Everglades, traipsing through the marshes of the the "River of Grass" to a cypress dome submerged in water. Well, we did the boat tour, but sadly slough slogging did not work out in the end. More about that later.

So anyway, our tour was at 10:00 and it was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We set our alarm for 6, but somehow it got turned off and we slept til a few minutes past 7. Oops! You've never seen me move so fast in the morning. Luckily we had all our stuff ready to go, so we were dressed/fed/teeth brushed/out the door by 7:30.

The drive down to Flamingo was very... interesting to say the least. There is one road that branches off of U.S. 1 near Homestead that takes you all the way down to the bottom of the Everglades. The last little town you pass through on the way to the park entrance is called Florida City, and is awesomely redneck. We expected to be driving through the swamp after leaving the highway, but everywhere around us was all agricultural land. We couldn't figure out what they were growing/harvesting (I later learned through reading that these fields produce many winter vegetables that are consumed across the country), but it very clearly was at the expense of the Everglades. That land had to be drained and dredged and otherwise completely ruined in order to turn it into farmland. It ran all the way and butted directly up against the border of the park. I've done some reading in the last year or so about how over the years we've basically come in and disrupted pretty much everything, and it's easy to see evidence of it all over Florida. Every man-made structure and roadway and even the trail I was biking on the other day obstructs the flow of water and has ruined what once was. It's amazing and really sad to see the before and after aerial views of this place. I like that we're able to go and see it, but at the same time I feel kind of guilty about utilizing roads and canals that aren't supposed to be there. (If you care to read about any of it, check out Florida Bay Forever (AWESOME) and The Everglades: Where Wonders Only Whisper (dumb name, but the photographs are pretty amazing).)

But anyway. So we ended up making it there with a few minutes to spare, and it ended up that there were only 6 of us on the boat, which was nice. It was an hour and 45 minute tour, starting out through a man-made canal that was dug out in I think the 50s, which of course had ended up being a massive ecological disaster. The water flow was disrupted, too much salt water rushed into the area, and a lot of animals and plants died due to the salinity of the water. I guess it has kind of regulated itself a little since then, but the trees still cannot grow in the same way anymore, and the park service has to come in and trim the mangroves back every year. But before the canal was made, the only way to get back into the bays and waterways that we saw today was to go all the way around the tip of Florida into the Gulf and enter through Little Shark River and/or the waterways off of Ponce de Leon Bay, and then make your way southeast through the maze of mangrove islands.

The canal we were on was called Buttonwood Canal, and it was still pretty cool because the mangrove trees were growing on either side and everything was very pretty. Our guide pointed out the three different kinds of mangrove trees (black, white, and red, named for their bark), as well as a few other species of trees and plants. One particular tree was apparently super poisonous, and the Calusa Indians used to torture and kill people with it. If you would so much as touch one of the leaves, your skin would immediately blister up. If you ingested the fruit growing on the tree, it would basically eat away your esophagus. Like drinking Drain-O, our guide said.

As we glided through, our guide told us about several other things, one being an interesting tidbit about the marshes. Since the canal wasn't always a part of the natural landscape, there was a portion of the ride where we could see through the tangle of mangroves to a little bit of marsh land on the other side. When the guide started talking about things you find out in the marshes, our ears perked up because that was the kind of environment we would be slough slogging in later that afternoon. He mentioned several different kinds of wildlife, including snakes, which I am ok with as long as they're not the poisonous kind. Of the couple dozen species of snakes down here, only 4 are venomous and tend to avoid people. But then he started talking about the BUGS, and then the BIG BLACK FURRY SPIDERS. Jake and I both looked at each other and without a word, had an instant unspoken agreement that we would NOT be slough slogging today. Boo spiders.

Buttonwood Canal eventually led us to Coot Bay. From there, everything else on our boat ride was natural and just as it always has been. We went across Coot Bay and up through Tarpon Creek. Tarpon Creek then opened up to the beginning part of Whitewater Bay. Whitewater Bay is the second largest body of water in the state of Florida, after Lake Okeechobee. What we were able to see was only a tiny fraction of the bay, as the whole thing is strewn with huge mangrove islands and it goes on for a pretty long ways. So we kind of did a big circle, hung out for a few, and looked at a map of where we had gone that day. Pretty much the same map I linked to above, but a magnified version of the extreme southern areas where we were.

Coot Bay

These little ducks/birds zoomed away all at once when we came by. They looked like they were running on the water and we thought they were funny. :)

Tarpon Creek

Whitewater Bay

These mangrove trees grow their roots from their trunks and lower branches down into the water, where they eventually anchor to the ground. This is how they spread out and continue to grow over the water. They literally "walk" forward, and are nicknamed "walking trees."

After our boat ride was over, we walked around the marina for a little bit and got to see a baby manatee over by the docks. This was the best picture I could get of him/her.

Then we walked over to the Florida Bay side of the marina where they had a little restaurant and a visitor center. We had a very mediocre lunch, but with a pretty awesome view. Next time we come I want to take the Florida Bay tour. :)

When we left Flamingo, and since we were no longer trying to make it to the 1:30 slough slog, we just made our way back up the single road through the park and stopped off at a few locations recommended by our boat guide. The first was Nine Mile Pond, which had zero gators and nothing but some giant dive-bombing buzzing insects that sent me running back to the car. So we continued on to Pay-hay-okee Overlook, which was an elevated walkway out to an unobstructed view of the River of Grass. Since this is the dry season, it was definitely looking a little parched.

Our last stop before heading back home was Anhinga Trail in the Royal Palm area. This was a path along a little waterway, with an elevated walkway above some of the bigger ponds. We saw plenty of gators and different kinds of birds. There were a few standing on the rails of the walkway, deep in concentration, and I was able to get close enough to get some good shots with my zoom lens.

This poor turtle was stuck on this rock. His little arms were going and going to no avail.

hehe

Thought we might get to see this bird get eaten, but he didn't.

Welp, that's about it. I already can't wait to go back and explore some other areas. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and my nerdy knowledge of/fascination with the Everglades.