Everglades National Park

Think of real estate in Florida and many will think of swamp land being sold by unscrupulous real estate agents. And when you think of Florida swamp land, you probably think of the Everglades!

The only problem is that there is no swamp land in the Everglades!

Rather, it consists of a very wide (80+ miles) river slowly moving from Big Cypress National Preserve in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south.

This river is very shallow – often just a few feet deep – and generally has sawtooth grass growing in it, giving rise to the term ‘river of grass’.

Years ago, when I visited Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, current elevation signs were placed along the highway showing 5,000 feet, 8,000 feet, 10,000 feet, and so on up over 12,000.

In the Everglades, the signs showed “3 feet above sea level”, and a few miles later “4 feet above sea level” and so on. Elevation change in the Everglades can be measured in inches!

Yet that tiniest of elevation change can create an entirely different microsystem. Grass and cypress trees in the lower and wetter lands, more sturdy hardwoods in the “hammocks” (areas of higher elevation where the land is dry). Magnolias take root in the brackish waters where the freshwater river meets the salty Florida Bay, solidifying the shoreline and reducing erosion.

We stopped at both visitor’s centers along the main park road. In the first one, just outside the park’s eastern entrance, we watched the excellent film about the entire ecosystem of the Everglades and the importance of protecting it.

At the western end of the park road lies the Flamingo visitor’s center. The permanent building is under renovation so the actual visitor center was in a temporary trailer. By the way, the permanent building is painted pink, making it the “Pink Flamingo” visitor’s center.

We were unable to get a Passport stamp at Flamingo. It seems the Secretary of the Interior was going to visit the park and wanted a photo op stamping her own Passport. But she didn’t want to go into the visitor’s center like everyone else (ew commoners), so someone came in and took the stamp and ink pad away, denying everyone else that stamp for the day. The staff members were able to stamp a bunch of blank pieces of paper so we had something, but no permanent stamp in the books. Arrogant politicians.

Our day ended with a very unusual ranger presentation – unusual for a National Park. It was a tour of an old Nike missile base located deep inside the Everglades. It was constructed after the Cuban missile crisis on October 1962 and stood guard until the late 1970s. In the early 2000s, a veteran of the base convinced the park’s superintendent to restore the now rundown base as a historic landmark. The tour was fascinating and I recommend it if available when you visit the park.

This was my fourth visit to Everglades National Park and it remains an amazing and truly unique place.

Steve