Grand Cypress Preserve & the Everglades

Since we’ve never been further south than Tampa, we decided to give southern Florida a try.  We saw that there were national campgrounds along the route to the Keys and they sounded inviting. 


Yikes!  These alligators weren’t at the Parks, they were at the Visitor’s Center in the Grand Cypress Preserve, which is along the Tamiami Highway.  That’s the road to travel if you want to see alligators.  We saw well over 100 in the canal along the side the road. 


This guy looked menacing.  He had his eyes on something.


He was eyeing up this tasty bird but the bird just thumbed his beak at the alligator, waited until he got really, really close, then flew away.

 
This is one disappointed alligator.



We stayed overnight at Monument Lake.  It had no water, no electricity, and no sewer.  It’s just a pretty place to pull up beside a lake and spend the night.  We loved it there.


The view of the sunset was so pretty.


When it got dark the sky will filled with stars and planets.


We stopped in the Everglades for the night and hiked the Anhinga Trail even though the Gumbo Limbo Trail had a fun name.


I forget the name of this bird, but this kind of birds don’t have any oil in their wings so they have to hold them out to dry.


This bird just sat there and ignored all those alligators.

Bob eyed up this giant lens.  He better keep on practicing with what he has now before he buys one of those!


This definitely is not a good place to go swimming.


The trail was nice with a boardwalk over the swamp and piers to stand and peer at the alligators.


Back at the camper, it’s time to roast a few hotdogs and marshmallows.


This is Keyper.  You’ll see where we bought him in the next blog post.


There’s a nice biking trail in the Everglades called Shark Valley.  There are no sharks, and it doesn’t look like much of a valley, but we heard it was a really nice biking trail.


There were alligators all along the trail and Bob kept reminding me not to ride over an alligator’s tail!


This trail was flat.  Very, very flat.


You could still take the easy way to see Shark Valley by riding the tram.


They had an observation tower.


This is the view from the tower.  Flat, flat, flat.


This guy is the guide from the tram we passed.  He actually rolled up his pants and waded into that mud and gunk.  Not me.  Never in a million years!
OK. That’s it for the Everglades and Big Cypress Preserve.  Next post:  The Florida Keys!