Day 52: Everglades

It was on the bucket list, and we did a solid job of exploring the 1% of the Everglades that we were in today. We packed up much of our supplies the night before so we could get an early start today.

Started day with 15 mile (yes, 15 MILE!) bike ride with the kids. The ranger gave us some tips on what we might see and said to enjoy the quiet day of riding.

Pre-bike ride video helped us learn that the Everglades aren’t a swamp because water is constantly flowing through them. On our ride the water was really high and very clear. We are here at the very wet time when even the roads are flooded, so animals are spread out and harder to see. Winter in the dry season, so with fewer areas of water, the animals are closer together.

Mile 1-1.5 was a doozy, screaming, crying, turning around and triple scoop adult ice cream cones about sums up the negotiating process with Nicholas. After a fair amount of time, I was able to negotiate a double scoop of ice cream once we were back near the RV. Cooper asked how long and when I said 15 miles, he became very sluggish and you could tell the morale was falling fast. Somehow the troops were able to rally and we made it to mile 2, together.

Miles 3 to 15 were amazing. We saw nearly every native bird that regularly frequents this part of the Everglades. We also saw a frog, many fish (some 12″ long), turtles, 3″ long orange crickets, and alligators. Our alligator total was eight: we saw ones from 1′ to 5′ long, and we saw them sleeping, swimming, and eating.

The observation tower looked a lot like the one we saw at Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains. We saw huge turtles with ~2′ wide shells. There were also fearless crows, which is probably why they said not to eat up there, but we did it anyway.

The path back was more direct so slightly shorter. A few miles of water over the path made for some very happy puddle riding boys.

On the way back, it felt like we were in a zoo with how many animals there were and how they seemed to be so evenly spaced out. It definitely kept morale high as we continued to discover more and more animals. The trails have mile markers, which turned out to be the perfect morale boost for the final five miles.

It took a little under four hours to complete the path including stopping for lunch, snacks and lots of water breaks. The weather was perfect with sporadic clouds to give us some shade, mid 80s in temperature, and a slight tailwind headed back to the parking lot. We were thankful for the breeze so we didn’t have a bug problem, and the clouds weren’t full of rain so we benefited from some shade without getting soaked.

You can’t do the Everglades without doing an airboat ride, right? We saw a turtle, some more birds, and two big alligators. We got to go fast and feel the spray in the turns, and we also went slow and learned some more about the history and other facts about the Everglades. Apparently farming and development has had a big impact on the area, as have non-native species.

Included with the airboat ride was a short animal show. We saw a scorpion and very large toad along with alligators. All three boys held the 3-year-old alligator. I passed and the next person to hold it was peed on, so I guess my alligator record is much better than my bird record. Cooper and Nicholas both agreed that the alligator felt like rubber when holding it.

Next we got ice cream, as promised. Coldstone Creamery ended up being the closest thing we could find, but they don’t actually have double scoops. We made it work.

Finally back at the RV, we unpacked just in time for dinner. The boys did some tree climbing with this perfect climbing tree behind our site. Throughout the day at this site, Rob has been battling crazy bug bites, like 20 bites in 5 minutes. They didn’t look like mosquito bites and it was the biggest mystery as it happened inside and outside of the RV. He even changed clothes to see whether that had something to do with it.

Another packed but extremely fun day!