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Everglades

As we are behind on blog posts, here is a family effort to share some highlights from our trip to Everglades National Park.

Landscape
The Everglades were far more vast and flat than we had expected. I’m sure we won’t see scenery like this until we hit Saskatchewan in June! This sign gives you a good idea of how close we were to sea level as we drove throughout the park:















Signs that were new to us:
  








Snake Bight Trail (3.6 miles)
This was the straightest trail we ever hiked. It was longer than Miriam would have liked and hot in the parts that were not shady. We loved looking at the beautiful flowers, cacti, and trees along the way. The trail ended at the ocean, which helped us cool down and gather our strength for the return trip.





















Anhinga Trail (0.8 miles)
We saw lots of alligators on this trail, probably 20 in total. We also saw turtles, birds, and fish. The anhinga birds struck neat poses to help them dry their wings after diving into the water to find food. This was a nice short hike, and we did it at two different times of day.

Gumbo Limbo Trail (0.4 miles)
Lots of neat trees and plants on this hike, and we loved that it was short and shady. Lots of neat epiphytes (air plants) here.

Our Campsite at Long Pine Key
Although we had no shade it was pretty private - the palms provided some separation between sites. The comfort station was close, and the showers were NOT hot, but this turned out to work in our favour as they helped us cool off! Voych spotted a snake one night near the comfort station - it was all coiled up. We also had cardinals at our campsite. There were also wolf spiders we saw only at night; there were hundreds of them in the grass and our flashlights caused light to shine back at use from their eyes.

Guy Bradley Trail (2 miles)
This hike went along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and we saw lots of neat things on the beach, including a neat horseshoe crab skeleton(?). There were hundreds of lizards on the path as well.











Pahayokee Lookout
This was a very cool place to see how flat and open the Everglades are. The lookout provided a similar perspective to driving in the car, as the flat swampy terrain seemed to stretch a long way in all directions.

Weather
We are really glad to have visited here in the winter! The days were warm, sometimes a bit too warm, and we really needed to seek shelter from the sun in the afternoon. The nights were amazing. We were able to sleep with the windows open and the temperature was perfect. Rain passed close by but we weren’t affected.

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