This park has been on my bucket list for as long as we've been coming to Florida. I told Bill a couple of years ago, when we don't have a dog (thinking it would be a lot more years ;o(, I wanted to do some sightseeing. I really wanted to go to the FL Keys, but it's a long way from where we are and it would be quite expensive to stay for a few days. So, that's off the list but the Everglades was do-able.
Unfortunately, most of the park is located in the Southern part of the state and to the East of us, so we had to concentrate on the Northern section. We drove for about two hours before reaching the Kirby Storter Roadside Park, our first stop. "Kirby Storter, a member of the pioneering Storter family of Everglades City, was an engineer who oversaw the construction of portions of the Tamiami Trail", which runs between Tampa and Miami. There were picnic tables and a .3 mile boardwalk. The weather was picture perfect, not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the low 70's and a light breeze, which kept the bugs away. In the short walk, we moved from a field type area, into a marshy area with slow moving water and cypress trees.
Remember, it's winter in Florida and many of the trees drop their leaves, including these cypress trees, which is why they are called Bald Cypress.
This pano shows the difference in the landscape from right to left. The trees on the right have no leaves but as you move left, some of the trees are green. It only takes a few feet of elevation to change the trees and shrubs that can grow there.This is typical cypress swamp. It's very pretty in a creepy kind of way. Always makes me think of the movie "Deliverance".This is a blooming air plant that attaches itself to the trees.
I actually got a decent picture of this wood stork perched high up in the tree.
These are large wading birds that weigh around 5.5 pounds. The only reason we saw this one is because we heard two birds calling back and forth and we were trying to see them, but we never did. We still have no idea what bird was making the noise we heard.
We left there and drove a few miles to Monroe Station, where we picked up the Loop Road, a 24 mile, mostly dirt road, through the park. Monroe Station is an historic site, built in 1928, "located halfway between Miami and Naples, and was one of six way stations established by Barron Collier to serve motorists traveling the newly constructed 107-mile section of the Tamiami Trail between Naples and Miami." Sadly, it burned to the ground in 2016. If interested, you can read more about it here.  |
| The Loop Road |
There is water within a couple of feet on both sides of the road, so we had to drive slowly in order to look into the brush. This was our first alligator sighting, along with what I think is a snowy egret.
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| Look closely...it's there. |
When we crossed over the bridges, we got a better look into the forest. I loved the way there was a pool of water and then it just sort of disappeared into the woods.
This gator was just sitting there along the side of the road.
We backed the truck into a small turn around and ate our lunch, while listening to the sounds of the Everglades.
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| Our view at lunch. |
Crossing another bridge...This was the biggest one we saw. He was just hanging out there but keeping an eye on those of us keeping an eye on him.
The last seven miles was paved and actually had occupied residences. I can't imagine living out in the middle of nowhere!
This was a view as we came near the end of the Loop Road. It was very pretty, lots of grass and stands of trees. Again, there is water within feet of the road and in some areas, there was water on the road because the water table is so high.
We didn't have a map for a couple of reasons. One, there's a damn pandemic and where you could usually go pick up information about nearby sights, you can't do that any more! Two, I tried to print a map before we left but the printer didn't have enough ink! GRRRRRR. So I was going by memory, which is kind of a joke, and I thought we were going to come off the Loop Road in a different location. When that's not where we were, neither of us had any idea where in the heck we were, or which direction we needed to travel.
I had a couple of other short trails/boardwalks I wanted to explore but from what we could tell from the internet information, that would have taken us farther from home and it was already nearly 3:00. We aren't too fond of driving in the dark, especially in this neck of the woods, where it would be pitch black, so we headed home instead.
Admittedly, the park was not what I expected but it was beautiful in an otherworldly sort of way and we enjoyed a delightful day. Plus, I checked something off my bucket list.
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