NBNC>Florida: February 4 2014

No chance of rain, no chance of fog, no chance of snow…lots of chance of sunshine so we packed a picnic and headed  to the furthest point south on the mainland to Flamingo Florida. The road that leads to this furthest edge passes through many subtropical wilderness prairies including habitats of freshwater, saltwater and hardwood hammocks. 

The Everglades spans nearly two million acres of water, marshes and land.  Following the park road for nearly 40 miles to the end we pass through the Dwarf Cypress Forest. Seen from a distance it appears that the trees are captured in an ice storm. Some have described these trees as ghosts of the Everglades.  We arrived at the campground in Flamingo which is hosted by the National Park. There are four loops that are available for motorhomes, trailers and mostly tenting sites. The sites are well-spaced and the loop for motorhomes are long pads with grassy areas and offer electricity.  We selected several sites for consideration to stake on next year.  

We found a picnic table near the marina and enjoyed sandwiches and chips. During our munching we saw a crocodile resting on the boat ramp just a few feet from us. Of course it became a Kodak-moment and it looked as if the croc smiled a few times.  

We meandered over to the marina where we happened to be treated to a presentation by a park ranger, Nicole, who versed us on the crocodiles and alligators who reside in the glades. Nicole was very interesting and entertaining in her schooling us further on these prehistoric reptiles.

 During her talk it there was a crocodile lazily floating near the dock and would seem quite interested when people would put their canoe in and start paddling up the canal; once the croc was happy to see the travelers leave his territory he would return to his floating.  

On our return we stopped at some of the turnouts which lead to canoe and walking trails. There are several boardwalks that lead over and through the saw grass wilderness. One of the boardwalks, Mahogony Hammock, is about a half mile of meandering through a lush canopy of mahogany and strangler fig trees. 

One mahogany, which has endured many hurricanes, is nearly 90 feet tall and 12 foot in circumference and is estimated to be over 500 years old. If only I could look this good at 65! There are many trees downed as a result of Hurricane Andrew, and are host to air plants and bromeliads.  We checked out the Daniel Beard Center, where the Nike Hercules Missile Site, part of the defense system built during the Cuban Missile Crisis, remains.

 We will be returning on another Tuesday for a ranger-guided tour.  We ended our Glades-day on the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm to see if the gator club was there. The gators had just left their resting area for the evening and we headed back to camp.