Description:
The Everglades are extraordinary, covering more than a million acres at the tip of southern Florida. The habitats within the park are quite diverse, ranging from the marine and estuarine areas of Florida Bay to pinelands, hardwood hammocks, and vast sawgrass marshes and freshwater sloughs. There are numerous hiking and canoe trails, boardwalks, and interpretive displays, in addition to two visitor centers.
Watchable wildlife:
Anhinga Trail over Taylor Slough at Royal Palm is a good place to watch anhingas nest in the spring, as well as year-round viewing of herons, egrets, double-crested cormorants, white ibis, American alligators, turtles, snakes, and fish. The Gumbo Limbo trail offers a look at a tropical hardwood hammock and its inhabitants recovering from Hurricane Andrew. Eco Pond near Flamingo is a good place to observe herons, white ibis, roseate spoonbills, white-eyed vireos, red-shouldered hawks, and numerous species of butterflies. From the Flamingo visitor Center, look out into Florida Bay, particularly at low tide in the winter, to see white pelicans, gulls, terns, shorebirds, white herons, reddish egrets, and other birds along the fringe of the bay and on a sandbar a few hundred yards out into the bay.
Ownership:
National Park Service
Contact:
(305) 242-7700
Directions:
Take Florida's Turnpike south to its end in Florida City. Turn right on SW 344 Street (Palm Drive), follow signs on Florida Highway 9336 to Everglades National Park.
Related Sites:
Other South East Florida Wildlife Sites
Florida State Parks
National Park Service Site
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