The Florida Everglades is a vast marshland in southwest Florida. The geologic area spans from Lake Okeechobee south nearly a third of Florida’s southern peninsula. It is primarily the result of slowly moving “river” which is 100 miles in length and 60 miles wide, and flows from Lake Okeechobee, southwest to the Florida Bay. Although not all of it today is marsh, due to numerous attempts to drain it through the years, a vast majority still exists. It is characterized by shallow marsh with large stands of sawgrass, mangroves, and cypress trees. Numerous wildlife call the Everglades home, including Panthers, Alligators, Crocodiles, Snakes, and many varieties of tropical birds.
Location of where we went.
About half of it has been drained, mostly in the 20th century in the name of progress, to make way for places to live and crops. It has also experienced periods of pollution, which have also greatly affected the plants and wildlife present there. Today, it is a protected area, and much of it has been preserved in the Everglades National Park, and several Wildlife Preserves.
Shawna and I ventured here to experience this amazing environment, and decided to take an airboat ride as well as a swamp buggy, through some of the northern edges outside of the National Park and Wildlife Preserves. We settled on one of the more popular companies running these tours in the area called Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours.
The canals we were exploring.Wooten’s Airboat Rides.They had several airboats.There were dangerous gators right at the entrance.The fish were also present.Dragonfly.Watch out for gators.This one hangs out around the boat launch. He has a name, CJ or Crooked Jaw, because he had an injury long ago fighting with another alligator.We started in the mangroves.The roots provide lots of safe habitat for small fish and other small animals and insects.We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride. It was pretty fast.We spotted this guy hanging out in the mangroves.Another was scurrying away in front of us.It’s a really big alligator.There were a few open spans of water.After the boat ride, our tickets included a swamp buggy ride. This is the loading dock.It had about 5 foot of clearance.We launched into the grasslands.There were lots of birds including Great Egrets and Spoonbills.The grasslands seem to go on forever. You may be able to make out the gator trail through the grass.There were also flowers here.That is a Spoonbill.There was this little homestead, supposedly representative of the native Americans who used to live here.There is a trail in the mud here, which was a sign of an alligator.The vultures were cooling themselves on the roof. Handsome fella.Young Spoonbill.Pickerelweed.The trail crossed onto dry land for a bit.This is a Black Bear print.The vine wrapped around the tree is actually a tree called a strangler fig, which finds it’s way to the top before growing into a full tree.Sugar Apple.The native Americans would bend the tree as it grew to mark direction to something important.This is a reconstruction of a hunter’s camp.They were also making moonshine.Traps.This is an alligator based on the rounded nose. I didn’t even notice the gecko on it, lol.Bear markings on the tree.We even saw a Panther.Our tickets also included a tour of the animal sanctuary on site, where they care for animals that can’t be released back into the wild and also breed alligators.They do alligator lessons on the hour.The otters here were in captivity before being rescued. They can never go back into the wild for lack of hunting skills.There are a few crocodiles left in Florida and they are on the endangered species list.Very large crocodile.This gator was escaping. Just kidding, it’s a gecko.Beautiful flower.There are two lions here. They were recued from captivity and can no longer survive in the wild. They are cared for and used for education.Bird of Paradise.
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