We LOVED the Everglades!  What a fascinating park.  We couldn't believe the wildlife we saw - it was amazing.  We spent three fantastic days in the Everglades and saw all sorts of everything!  The fascinations started on Saturday afternoon, February 26 after we entered the park.  After stopping in at the visitor's center to get our passport stamp, our first real stop was the Anhinga Trail.  This trail ended up being one of (if not "the") highlight of the Everglades.

The trail was a short boardwalk over a creek or two and platforms that looked over a large pond.  Since it's been a pretty dry winter, the animals were congregating where there was the most water.  Lucky for us, that means we saw LOADS of wildlife.  On the Anhinga Trail alone, we probably saw 50 alligators. At one point we could see 9 from where we were standing.  We couldn't believe how close they were to us and how huge they were!  We saw alligators that were just a few months old, some that seemed ancient and others that were just big and ugly.  We were fascinated by them - and fascinated by the fact that we weren't in a zoo.  We were actually in their natural habitat.  I can't begin to describe how cool it was.  The Everglades is also home to hundreds of birds.  The Everglades is the #1 park in the U.S. for bird watching.  We saw so many of everything -- and along the Anhinga trail we watched them dive for, stab, twirl and then and gobble up fish.  A live version of the nature channel.  :)

We then drove deep into the park to the Flamingo Visitor Center and campground.  We stayed there for three nights.  We were fortunate that the mosquitoes weren't any worse - but we still ended up with a couple dozen bites each.

Saturday morning was highlight number two.  We met a ranger for another canoe trip - this time through Nine Mile Pond.  We spent three hours in a canoe maneuvering through tiny mangrove channels and testing our non-existent canoe navigation skills.  By the time it was over, we were a little better.  We have a long way to go before we can hit Voyageur's National park! It was super cool to canoe through the slough, the ponds and see the saw grass in the distance.  We saw alligators sunning themselves on the bank, birds overhead and even a crocodile!!!!  But the real excitement was when we were two canoes back from the ranger (in very shallow water) and an alligator reared its head from below the surface, hissed, and backed away from her canoe.  Her paddle must have come so close to it that it startled the alligator.  We quickly moved in the other direction - but were definitely start led.

We paid for two different boat tours that took us to different parts of the Everglades.  The first was into the "back country" of the Everglades.   This one went up into the Wilderness Water Way.  It gave us a taste of what it would be like to canoe into the Everglades for a multi-day trek.  And, we saw another half-dozen crocodiles!  The second one we did was our last night there - a sunset boat ride into the Florida Bay.  I had been hoping to see dolphins - but no such luck.  Instead we had a gorgeous sunset -- it was amazingly clear and perfect.

We did a few other trails in the park that took us to pretty lakes surrounded by pine trees, a vista point overlooking the saw grass and cypress trees of the Everglades, and a trail that passed over a little pond where we saw four baby, baby alligators. (They couldn't have been more than a week or two old.)  Our final free tour was at the Nike Missile Plant near the park entrance.  The plant was a hot spot during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the tour was fairly interesting and informative.

We had a fantastic time.  On our way out we learned from the ranger that where we camped is a favorite place for the Pygmy Rattlesnakes that live in the park.  I'm REALLY glad we didn't know that - I wouldn't have slept a wink those three nights.  It was hard enough when I discovered the hundreds of wolf spiders (web-less spiders) living in the grass of the campground.  Their beady little eyes reflected off our headlamps and really creeped me out.   (Fortunately I only noticed them the last night).

The weather was absolutely perfect.  Warm, sunny, clear, but not humid or too hot.  It was pretty much ideal.  We highly recommend a visit there!  More pictures are in our gallery.  Password hasn't changed.