2 On the Road: Everglades

We booked an excursion that included a guided walking tour in the Everglades and an airboat ride out to a hammock. We were told to drive to this gas station and wait. They were running late so we had to wait about 45 minutes after we arrived there.

Eventually this bus showed up but then we were directed to follow it in our rental car. After parking in a different location, we boarded the bus and rode to Everglades National Park Shark Valley Visitor Center.

Click to enlarge so you can see the detail. The Everglades once covered almost 11,000 square miles of South Florida. Just a century ago, water flowed down the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee, then south through the vast Everglades to Florida Bay, the ultimate destination of uninterrupted sheetflow. Because of efforts to drain the marshland for agriculture, development and flood control, the Everglades is today half the size it was a century ago. This "River of Grass" is a mosaic of sawgrass marshes, freshwater ponds, prairies and forested uplands that supports a rich plant and wildlife community. Renowned for its wading birds and wildlife, the Everglades is home to dozens of federally threatened and endangered species, including the Florida panther, American crocodile, snail kite and wood stork. The mix of salt and fresh water makes it the only place on Earth where alligators and crocodiles exist side by side.

The name Shark Valley comes from the area in the Gulf of Mexico known as Shark River, where the water in the Everglades flows,

We started walking on a paved trail then got off on this boardwalk.

You can see the paved trail to the left is raised but most of the rest of the park was currently under water. The climate of South Florida is located across the broad transition zone between subtropical and tropical climates. Like most regions with this climate type, there are two basic seasons – a "dry season" (winter) which runs from November through April, and a "wet season" (summer) which runs from May through October. About 70% of the annual rainfall in south Florida occurs in the wet season – often as brief but intense tropical downpours. The dry season sees little rainfall and dew points and humidity are often quite low. The dry season can be severe at times, as wildfires and water restrictions are often in place. So the Everglades was in the third month of the dry season during our visit.

This is an Anhinga. The anhinga is also known as the snakebird because it swims with its body submerged while stretching its head and neck out above the surface of the water, giving it the appearance of a snake about to strike while it glides through the water. Anhingas are also graceful fliers and can travel long distances without flapping their wings.

Another anhinga. Anhingas are in the darter family, Anhingidae. Like other darters, anhingas hunt by spearing fishes and other small prey with their sharp, slender beaks. Because anhingas' feathers have a unique shape, their feathers become waterlogged when submerged in water, making it difficult for them to stay afloat. However, their waterlogged feathers allow them to dive easily and search for underwater prey, such as fish and amphibians. Anhingas can stay underwater for substantial periods of time.

Although not as plentiful as in the Pacific Northwest, the Everglades does contain ferns. These might be Southern Shield ferns. Another variety, called Old World Climbing Fern, is invasive, and is not a native plant in Florida. The plant is potentially harmful for the Everglades environment. It grows horizontally or vertically, often reaching 60 feet or more into tree canopies. It grows up and over native trees and shrubs, reducing plant diversity and degrading habitats. It is capable of covering large areas, including entire tree islands. It also acts as a fire ladder and causes great destruction when it carries fire into the canopy and other areas not adapted to fires.

The Fire Flag or Alligator Flag plant are common sights in wetlands and swamps in Florida where they are a native species. Their roots or rhizomes are submersed in water and their stalks rise up and produce broad leaves which can be 2-3 feet long and several inches wide. Sometimes the Alligator Flag plant marks an area where an alligator makes it home. So when the plants start waving, an alligator might be on the move.

Native Americans have used saw palmetto for a variety of uses. Its fruits were eaten. The leaves were used to thatch dwellings and to weave baskets. Cordage was made from its fibers. The plant was a source of oil and wax. It was used to treat several health issues by the Native Americans, too.

Anhingas often are seen perched with their wings spread, displaying their spectacular plumage. Whether wet or dry and especially in bright sunshine and cool temperatures, anhingas spread their wings, characteristically orienting themselves with their backs to the sun. Anhingas have unusually low metabolic rates and unusually high rates of body-heat loss. The spread-wing posture allows them to absorb solar energy to supplement their low metabolic heat production and to offset their high rate of heat loss. Our guide also mentioned that they are sometimes called the Piano Bird as their black and white feathers resemble piano keys.

Caught this gar swimming by in the water.

The Everglades actually encompass nine different ecosystems. Shark Valley is in the sawgrass prairie. This is sawgrass. Sawgrass is a tall, slender plant that can reach up to ten feet high. It grows quickly and densely covers many parts of the Everglades banks. It is the most dominant plant found in the surrounding habitat. Sawgrass is famous for its sharp points that run along the edges of its leaves. These teeth can cut you upon contact – hence the name sawgrass.

Here our guide is pulling up some sawgrass to demonstrate how you can chew of the inner layer to get water.

Why do I always get butt shots?

Spatterdock, or yellow pond-lily, is a perennial aquatic plant widespread in the everglades. It commonly inhabits shallow freshwater ponds, where its rhizome is anchored in a muddy bottom and, under favorable conditions, can produce numerous vegetative colonies. Its large (up to 16 inches long) cordate-ovate dark-green leaves are mostly held slightly above the water surface or are found floating, and it requires at least partial sunlight to flower. The yellow flowers are solitary, close for the night, and usually also emerge several inches from the water. Many people might call it a waterlily, but even though it's in the same botanical family with waterlilies, it’s not. Waterlilies have flowers that fully open, while spatterdock produces yellow flowers that look perpetually half-open, at best. They are open, but they just don't look it.

Baby gater sunning.

Momma was soaking up the rays nearby.

Yep, I don't want to mess with those teeth.

On the Otter Cave Hammock Trail.

A few people slipped off the branches going through this boggy area and really got their shoes dirty

Wouldn't want to grab these sticky pods.

Solution hole

This Wood Stork with a broken toe was sitting alongside a pool of water. Yes it looks like it has backward knees but those are actually its ankles.

The pool also contained two alligators. Since it was morning and the alligators were too cold to move, the wood stork was unconcerned by their presents. Actually the humans didn't seem to bother it either.

I recommend reading the following website to see how alligators are beneficial to the Everglades environment. https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2020/4/28/alligators-increase-plant-diversity

Black racer

There are at least six baby gaters in this photo

Blue Egret

At this point we headed back to the van and had a snack and drinks before loading up and traveling across the road to get on an airboat.

There were two boats at the dock. This one was two small for the 17 of us.

So we got on this one with plenty of room to spare.

We scared up some birds. There's one flying over the right side of this grass hump.


Our ride took us to this abandoned hammock. It is still owned and occasionally used by a family. Pushed by the arrival of European settlement, Seminoles moved into southern Florida which resulted in a series of three Seminole Wars spanning the years from 1817 to 1858. The United States attempted to defeat and remove the Seminoles from Florida, but small numbers evaded capture. The Miccosukees, their numbers reduced to 50 individual in Florida, took refuge deep in the Everglades. They mixed with the few other residents and resumed the lifestyles of previous native inhabitants by regularly inhabiting the Everglades tree islands.

Eventually, events such as the building of the Tamiami Trail in 1928 (the road that serves as the north eastern park boundary); the establishment of the Everglades National Park; and the institution of systematic water management systems changed the Seminole and Miccosukee way of life in the Everglades. In 1957, the Seminole Tribe legally incorporated, and in 1962, the Miccosukee Tribe—earlier concealed from the public eye under the Seminole name—became an officially recognized sovereign government.

Since the efforts to drain the everglades in the 1800 and early 1900's, the water around these hammocks has become contaminated with high phosphorus levels from the fertilizer applications, and mercury. Therefore the area was unfit for human habitation and the Miccosukee moved off the hammocks.

Our guide, Elvis, is a Miccosukee with a son that wants to go to the University of Iowa because of its wrestling program.

Sewing machines abandoned by the departing Miccosukee are arranged in an artful manner

More baby gaters. The survival rate of hatchling alligators is very low. Only about 3 -4 hatchlings out of a hundred are thought to make it to adulthood. They are preyed upon by fish, wading birds, hawks and owls, river otters and raccoons, turtles and other alligators.

Elvis led us further back on the hammock to show us where the momma gater was sitting in the sun.

There was a boardwalk that led out away from the settlement so we took that for the short distance it went. An older boardwalk, that was mostly in ruin, ran along side. A short portion of the old boardwalk was used to store a couple boats