Everglades National Park aka: Everglades

Finally made it to the Everglades after living in Florida for 14 years. A friend had someone visiting so we made a day trip. We went to Holiday Park since it was the closest to home. Went on an airboat ride, saw alligators and peacocks, and watched an alligator wresting show.

Grew up in southern Louisiana, which is as flat and swampy as Florida, so I came to love flatlands and swamp. So naturally when I went to the Everglades in ‘02, I was in heaven.

With a plane to catch we had less than two hours to swing by Everglades on the way back from the Keys. Outside of wild animal parks and zoos, I have never seen so much big wild life, so close up, in such a short period of time. Gators of all sizes humungous to teeny tiny, birds of all sizes, fish of all sizes, just absolutely teeming.

Since I have not much experience in this saw grassy environment – thought it was amazing. And just have to really appreciate conservationists who came before us and managed to preserve as much of this wild and distinctive peninsula as they did. Thanks John Pennekamp et al. I’d absolutely like to go back and spend some real time.

That’s what I said to a friend, so he led me and a few other people to a place called Holiday Park, in the Everglades. It was at night, but the convenience store that’s located there is open 24 hours. This place is kinda creepy going in, because you have to drive over this “one car at a time” bridge. So that made me nervous. Behind the store there’s peacocks and turkeys everywhere..it’s great! and R.V.’s are camped out there. In the front there’s a lot of stray cats and racoons. Mind you this is all taking place at night..so technically we weren’t supposed to be where we went. we climbed over this wooden fence and started walking the Everglades trail. We heard boars in the sawgrass..I was scared! Walking back we spoke with a man in the convenience store. He said that besides boars, there’s brown recluses, (of course alligators), black panthers??, anacondas??...But before you get to the entrance bridge…this is a tip...if you ever want to see a lot of stars, pull over and park at the lake’s edge and look up!

I lived in Miami for 18 years! If you havent been the Everlades is a must see!

My friend and I took the classical tourist fan-boat ride into the everglades. Tip: pack ear plugs and a big pair of glasses. The fan boat is load and they’ll hand out paper towels to wrap up and stuff into your ears, but the plugs are easier and better. Also, with the fan boat whipping at every reed, tiny little things tend to get knocked off and a big pair of glasses will protect your eyes. Note: I’ve never been injured or hurt on any of our tours (3 total so far), but sometimes lil green plant parts are knocked about and I use caution. Then we toured the gator farms. The only insight I can share is this: do NOT feed the storks!! OMG… I was chased by a stork around the entire gator park. They are big birds, and they want whatever is in your hand. Here I was surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of armored and deadly gators, and I’m running away from a big white bird. Irony at its best.

I was expecting more exotic stuff when I traveled all the way down…

For wildlife, there’s alligator, and a bunch of birds. Unfortunately I have seen enough alligators back when I was in U of Florida. I’ve been wanting to kayak with gators/crocodiles alongside, but that was not really an option ( at least from what I was told by the visitor center). To my greatest surprise and relief, there was NO mosquito – which also tells how dry it was.

For vegetation, there’s a lot of grass, and some other not-so-interesting plants. I thought there’d be wetland and swamps, but it turned out to be mostly dry and hot.

Some might argue that this place is more for nature preservation purposes, but then I think it makes sense to keep it from human completely…

According to current thoughts, the Everglades will be gone before too long. I have to get there before that happens.

This place was very beautiful… and it is one of a kind. Everyone should try to not only come here, but try to help out in the efforts to preserve it!

i currently live less than a mile from the verglades, and i go whenever i have the time. moving in a couple of weeks though.