Florida - Day 15 - the Everglades, via Key Largo

Long Pine Key Campground, Everglades National Park

Wednesday, 31 January 2023

You have to piece these two map sections together, though there's still some places missing from these two views.

The Tamiami Trail, aka US-41, which is what we spent much of the morning driving along, seems longer than the mileage says.  Probably because there's not a lot of variety in the scenery.

There were marshes and some kind of water body (a canal or creek or something) alongside the road for miles - 55.7 miles, to be exact.  Utility wires were strung beside the road all along the way, and I saw kingfishers and herons and egrets and grackles perched on those wires and on trees growing by the road.  Cormorants and/or anhingas.  And probably lots of others that I couldn't identify.

As you can see on the map, we passed through the Big Cypress National Preserve.  This one and the Big Thicket in Texas became the country's first national preserves when they were both established in 1974 (hard to believe they were created that recently).  Actually, Big Cypress was supposed to be included when the Everglades were established (1947) but some of it was still privately owned and - of course - oil had been found in one part of it.  There's an interesting discussion of this as well as other developmental pressures here on the Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Big-Cypress-National-Preserve

I saw more panther crossing signs, one with a blinking yellow light, which makes me think that's a popular panther area.  Wish I'd seen one.

I also saw signs that said I was "entering a wildlife sensor area" and later that I was leaving it.  Can't find anything specific online but assume this is a tracking effort to locate panthers and other species.

I saw lots of other miscellaneous "animal crossing area" signs.

Another sign told me, "Welcome to Miccosukee Tribe."  I'd never heard of them and looked them up and found this fascinating history.   https://www.miccosukee.com/history  Their strategy of using Fidel Castro to gain federal recognition of their tribal status is incredible.

We stopped for about an hour at the Shark Valley Visitor Center, part of the Everglades.  I was disappointed to learn there's no road through this section, just hiking trails.  It was already getting hot and I didn't trust Dext around strange wildlife (like alligators), so we just walked around the parking area.  And I found some informative exhibits inside.  There's a glare on some of these, but they're interesting if you can read them.

The Everglades is huge.
This shows the water flow from north to south.

This shows the freshwater/saltwater areas.

A different way of explaining this.

An example of the effects of salinity change.

much of this is enlarged below

Some of the vegetation and who depends on it:

It wasn't labeled but I'm guessing this is sawgrass around a willow hammock.

alligator/turtle coexistence

more alligator/turtle coexistence

A ranger at Shark Valley explained to me that one way they're increasing the flow of the Kissimmee River into the Everglades is to knock down the dam that was formed by the Tamiami Trail and replace some of it with bridges.  He said they built 3 new bridges in the last 5 years along that road.

When I got back on the road, I saw some of those bridges - they're the same level as the rest of the road (low) so they're not really noticeable, but they're long, allowing a lot of water to pass through.

I heard on the radio that this is National Plan A Vacation Day.

At Homestead, I picked up US-1 - the road that runs (basically) from New England down to Key West.  I think it's the only road that runs down to the keys, and I wanted to go as far as Key Largo.  I chose it mainly to honor the old Bogart/Bacall movie, but also because it's the closest.

But first I did a little shopping, got some gas ($3.43/gallon), passed a lot of roadside produce stands, and saw a field of corn that had grown enough that I could identify it easily.

I passed a Cemex plant.  A sign told me Homestead would host a Stone Crab and Seafood Festival in March.

I crossed from the mainland over to the islands, feeling like I was driving on a causeway, because I had a long body of green water on both sides of the road.  But I can't find anything online about it - maybe because all the bridges taking US-1 down to the lower part of the Keys are more remarkable.

I passed the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and then was told that Key Largo is the Diving Capital of the World.  Apparently one reason for this is that it has the world's largest artificial reef, which sounded weird to me until I learned that the reef formed around the U.S.S. Spiegel Grove (510' long), which was intentionally sunk off Key Largo in 2002.  There's also the John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park, which I passed.  And as a bonus, there's the African Queen - the African Queen - which has been refurbished and is available for daily cruises.

I passed a number of RV parks, all very crowded.

Back on the mainland, a sign told me I was on Harriet Tubman Highway, which I found very surprising given that Florida wasn't an area she worked in, as far as I recall.  But I found that it's an effort to rename the Old Dixie Highway - which I traveled on myself near Tomoka State Park.  Here's a fascinating account of how that decision happened in the town of Coral Gables.   https://www.local10.com/coral-gables-changing-us-1-name-to-harriet-tubman-hwy

Eventually (it seemed like it took a long time), I entered Everglades National Park.

Instead of going straight to the campground, I drove all the way to the end of the road at Flamingo Visitor Center, at the far southern base of the park.

Signs along the road told me I was going through Rock Reef Pass, elev. 3', and Dwarf Cypress Forest, elev. 4'.  For perspective, the official highest point in Florida is Britton Hill - 345' high - up by the Panhandle.  The whole state is at or near sea level.

What I saw along this road was miles and miles of grass, interspersed with clumps of bushes and trees - just as was explained in those signs at Shark Valley Visitor Center.  It was disorienting because, for some reason, I'd always pictured the Everglades as being a forest.  This was a forest only if you're about the size of a rabbit.  For perspective, I saw some Great Egrets standing in the middle of some of this grass - they're about 3' tall, and I could see their heads above the grass.

At the visitor center, Dext and I walked around the very shady parking area, dodging a flock of White Ibis feeding in the grass.  And actually, Flamingo Visitor Center itself was closed because of damage from Ian.  All they had was a small portable building, so they didn't have many exhibits.

We'd passed a large tract of dead trees near the visitor center, and a ranger told me it was due to heavy saltwater incursion from one of the hurricanes.

Then all the way back through the park to the turn for tonight's campground.  I felt lucky to get the reservations for the next 3 nights - even though there're no hookups here.  I ran the generator (so we could have AC) until 8:00 (the cut-off time), and then opened up all the windows and skylights to try to get us enough air to cope with the 70° that was forecast as tonight's low temp.