The Everglades

Southern Florida is where hard core northwesterners meet their match. Even though the temperatures are not high, only in the 70's and low 80's, the humidity makes it feel much hotter and very clammy. Sweating does nothing to cool you off, just makes you stickier. People must be able to acclimate to it because the folks who live here love it and wouldn't/couldn't live anywhere else. Go figure. That's evolution for you!

The Everglades are an amazing ecosystem, covering a huge area of Florida. Over time it has been reduced to 1/5 of its original size. The digging of canals to drain the waters, and the development of agricultural and residential areas have nearly destroyed the functioning of the massive wetlands. The yearly cycle of flooding and "drying down" has been reduced to a fraction of historic levels. For years, in an effort to control flooding, create farmable and buildable land, and reduce mosquitos, canals were built to drain away the "excess water". Turns out that it isn't excess water at all to the plants and animals that live in the broad shallow river that is the Everglades. The Everglades are one of a kind on our planet, they are the most studied ecosystem in the US.

Fortunately, efforts are underway to restore some of the waters to the Everglades. Whether these efforts will be in time or enough to save the wetlands remains to be seen. Many governmental agencies, conservation groups and community groups are working together to protect large areas of land that are important to the Everglades. They are building bridges to replace roadways that impede water flow, blocking old canals to redirect the water back to it's original course, and trying to educate people and businesses to improve the water quality of the water flowing into the system. It is vastly complex and costly but it gives me hope that this special place can be improved and protected. It is sad to think that it will never be what it once was. I guess that is true of any place that mankind touches for any length of time.

River of Grass with dormant cypress trees

Herons everywhere!

Most or all of the roads and paths in the park have been created by dredging a canal to build up the road or path, which results in a canal, large or small, running along the way. The park has tried to minimize this effect but the pools of water have become habitat for many animals and visitors have access to the park. Needs must be balanced. 

Sunset at Royal Palms

One of MANY gators!

We explored several areas of the park, the "River of Grass" overlook at Pa-Hay-Okee, the Royal Palms boardwalk where we saw our first, very exciting alligator, and the Shark Valley bike loop and overlook. The tall overlooks are important because the elevation change in the park, from high to low amounts to a whopping 14 feet. That doesn't seem like much but it is the only thing that makes half the state of Florida a river, not a swamp. It flows very slowly but it is always moving. At one point we drove over Rock Reef Pass, the signage proudly announcing the elevation of 3 ft. From the overlooks you can see what looks like grasslands stretching to the horizon, dotted with groves of trees. These grasslands, in fact, have their roots in 6-12 inches of water that flows steadily to the south. The groups of trees are called hammocks and they are slightly higher than the river, only a few inches, just enough for trees and shrubs to grow. Each additional inch in elevation supports a new level of plants and animals. There are birds in every direction, herons, egrets, storks, anhinga, cormorants and so many more. What is sad is that the populations of wading birds are 1/10 of their former populations. I kept trying to imagine what 10 times more than what I was seeing would look like. 

This was something new!

Baby gators

Foundation of the food chain-algae!

So cute! Can we keep him?

The pathway for our bike ride in the Shark Valley was actually reclaimed from an old oil exploration road from long ago. Our excitement and awe of the gators was diminished fairly quickly after passing about 100 trailside lounging gators in the 7 miles to the lookout tower. They ranged from about 4-12ft and they were just everywhere, even blocking the pathways. We also saw 6 baby crocodiles. The birds were fantastic, wading through the shallows, perched in trees, swimming underwater and riding the thermals. At the overlook there was a large pond filled with large fish, gar, a favorite food for the lounging gators. We could see at least a dozen gators dozing in the shadows from the overlook. There were turtles swimming about as well. On the way back we saw gators by the dozen and hundreds of birds.

Crocodile smiles!

My fish!

As we drove westward out of the NP we entered Big Cypress National Preserve, another invaluable wetland and important ecosystem of South Florida. It is different from the Everglades in that it is dominated by forests of Cypress trees. Water flows through the forest similarly to the Everglades but the trees tower over the clear waters. We went to the visitors center but didn't have time or energy for a walk into the forest. From the boardwalk at the center we were treated to views of our first manatee. These wonderful mammals are like watching slow motion water ballet. They just drift along, turning, spinning and surfacing quietly once in a while. They like coastal areas and warm water, salt or fresh. In the winter when the sea is cooler they move up into the rivers and fresh water inlets for some warmth. They really like the output waters from electric plants but we haven't visited one of those yet. By waiting patiently we saw several more manatees feeding on grasses in the river.

Big Cypress is also home to the endangered Florida Panther. This big cat would probably be extinct by now without the efforts of people to introduce some new genes into the pool years ago. The native cats had gotten so scarce that inbreeding was affecting the babies. They brought in some Texas panthers for a few years to add some genetic variety and they have been doing better ever since. The foreign animals were removed and sent back to Texas after donating their genes. 

View from Shark Valley overlook

On the hunt...

Unfortunately a National Preserve does not get the same protections as a National Park and Big Cypress is open to more uses. Folks can fish, hunt, there are some homes and fishing camps, and the activity that we disapprove of is the use of swamp buggies that can go out and thrash around with big tires and engines. I imagine that there are only certain areas where they can do this but it seems out of line with preserving and protecting habitat and wildlife. As we drove through the area Thayer got tired of my nearly continuous cry of "Croc!" whenever I saw one or three lounging on the shore of the canal. I did stop after a while.

Shark Valley bike trail

Make way for cormorants!

We stayed with some very nice boondockers for 2 nights outside of Naples. Linda and Paul are completely refurbishing an old Airstream trailer and hope to be traveling for real when Paul retires in a couple of years. We had fun with their little grandsons, Tucker and Wyatt, aged 4 and 2. They brought back many memories of having my two little boys. Their father, Matt, is into "mud trucks" which needs no further description than this photo. Somewhere in the community is a vast mud pit where they meet with friends to compete to see who can go the furthest and get the muddiest. When they get stuck they haul each other out and do it again! We sure don't have this kind of fun in Bellevue.

Matt's mud truck!

Wyatt (2) and Tucker (4)

The bugs in Southern Florida have been very excited and happy to have me visit. They told all their friends and relatives to meet and greet me. It takes every ounce of will power I have to resist scratching my feet right off the ends of my legs! I've included this picture just for those of you who imagine our trip as a total lark with everything always being awesome and fantastic. There is some suffering involved and I won't regret leaving these little Florida vampires behind!
PS--found out several days later that I had gotten into a pile of fire ants! They are really miserable bites but I think I'm on the upswing with them, not quite so itchy today.

Itchy, itchy, itchy!