Everglades NP – Flamingo

I left the KOA around 10 to head back to the mainland!  The drive back up the Overseas Highway was nice, sunny at 1st and then it started raining – pouring – then sunny, finally settling on cloudy. There was a ton of traffic coming onto the Keys so I think we timed it just right. 

I was able to locate Card Sound Road this time and took it around to RT 1.  That was a nice drive!  Lots of FL scenery, which, while not really all that exciting, is better than cars and stores and stuff! 

Once I got to Homestead I had some errands to run – Publix for Club Soda, fuel for the RV and Robert Is Here for OJ, bananas and a milkshake.  The key Lime Milkshake was better than the Key Lime pie we’d had on Duval Street last night!  Definitely going to have to stop on the way out for another!

I was almost into the park when Mom texted that they were just now passing Robert’s, where was I?  If I’d known they were so close I could have shared that milkshake with Dad (it was HUGE and yes I ate every bite!).  We met up at the Visitor Center and Dad took the car off and we drove to the Royal Palms area so we could walk the Anhinga Trail.

Anhinga’s are birds that live in the Everglades and they were out in abundance tonight!  They are easily confused with the cormorants though.  The Anhinga Trail is mostly boardwalk over the pond and swamp and there are tons of birds, plants, alligators, and tourists.  We managed to get there during a ranger program so there were extra tourists.  There were 2 gators – one that I couldn’t see because there were too many people and the other I wasn’t convinced it was a gator – thought maybe it was a rock.  The trail was a nice way to stretch my legs though!

Apparently vultures are a problem around here:

Anhinga

Cormorants

White bird (might be a heron…)

Great Blue Heron

 

Air plants

River of Grass

Alligator?  (I don’t think so…but it’s sure close!)

 

Since I finished the trail before Mom and Dad did I walked the Gumbo-Limbo trail, which was an entirely different trail, though a hardwood hammock – it was very jungle-like!

By now it was after 4 and we still had an hour to drive to get to the Flamingo campground at the end of the road so we headed off down the road.  It was a long way down here, but it was a pretty drive! It was raining when we left the visitor center and soon after there was a rainbow way off in the distance, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it.  The grass of the Everglades looks like the prairie or the African Savannah – I kinda expected to see a giraffe or elephant or something.   The sun was going down and the clouds made it pretty!

When we arrived at the campground I went for a quick bike ride to check the place out before it got dark, I only had about 10 minutes and I had to go really fast to avoid the mosquitoes but it was nice.  It’s very cool here & doesn’t seem as humid as it was in the Keys. 

We have the whole day tomorrow here – we’ll probably go kayaking or biking or walking…we’ll see!