The ultimate Everglades trip. What more could you ask for?
Arrival Day
So we left the house today at 6:50am. The plane boarded at 8:25am. Plenty of time to get there! Even with heavy traffic on the highway (and wow did we get to experience that.) Our Uber driver was probably the worst one ever. He ‘couldn’t change lanes’ which was a total lie because he managed just fine once we got to the airport. Anyways, once there we got through security quick with TSA precheck. Mom went to Starbucks for some coffee and I went exploring for a donut from Dunkin Donuts. “There is not one too far from security at Terminal C.” This is the sort of thing I’d write into my Airport Guidebook. The guidebook is not very long at the moment, but it’s useful to know where all the restaurants are that I like in a hurry. (So far I have SeaTac, DFW, Chicago…among others).
The plane boarded on time and was supposed to leave at 9am, but because of an unknown delay we actually took off at 9:45am. Not a big deal. Literally all we are doing today is flying to the hotel. It was really really foggy in Boston so maybe that’s why.
The plane is an older Jet Blue model with the tilt tv in-the-chair screens. The ones with the sketchy credit card reader right next to the screen and 1990’s era quality. The movie selection was trash: 5 not super interesting movies. The major plus was free internet via WiFi. So any google search, YouTube video, Netflix even…you don’t get that on American! (Unless you are an executive platinum member).
After we landed we headed to the bag carousel. I don’t know about you, but I always bet on which bag comes out first. I chose mine and boom it was out before Mom’s! The next step in the plan was taking the hotel shuttle to the hotel. That proved to be rather difficult as we got on the wrong shuttle. You see…there are 4x Courtyard Marriott’s at the airport. Sooo we went to the wrong hotel. Mom was furious, but I found it more relatable because I’ve done this exact thing before! Remember the Sleep Inn in Oklahoma City Ethan? Haha that was fun.
We ended up taking an Uber to the hotel. After unpacking we headed to South Beach to walk around. It was amazing!! Lots of super cars and people with sparkling clothes. We had a quick bite to eat at a restaurant called Ocean Drive on the Miami Beach strip. Really good food I must say! I got a Chihuahua Frozen drink (upside down corona in a glass filled with a lemonade-like tequila drink). My server also noticed my birthday is on Saturday so he brought me a free mini frozen margarita on the house! (I don’t really like to announce my birthday so it was rather touching that he noticed).
After drinks we walked on the beach for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. While at the restaurant I was initially feeling super dehydrated like I would faint, but after a quick walk on the beach + some water I was feeling a bit better. It would not be ideal to get hurt here as I left all my healthcare insurance cards at home. (Topic for a different day haha).
Day 1
Today we all met in the hotel lobby at 11am and introduced ourselves. Our guides would be the legendary Ben and Beth. (They are Everglades experts). There are 11 people in the group including the guides. After a quick introduction we headed out to the hotel courtyard to have a 1 and a half hour orientation which included some safety, an icebreaker, a chat about meal plans, and questions. After that we piled into the van and headed south.
The first stop of the day was Robert is Here. It is an open market connected to a farm with a bunch of animals. They have a bunch of animals such as cows, goats, giant turtles, an emu, and chickens. We also had lunch here! I had a Turkey and cheese sandwich with lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. After lunch we all piled back into the van and proceeded to the Everglades National Park.
The drive went from populated Miami to relatively remote farmland within about an hour. It was about 80F with 66% humidity. Not great, not terrible. We passed the official Everglades sign not long after and boom we were in the campground area. Ben and Beth gave us a tent set up demo and we had a bit of free time to set up our stuff. About 30 minutes later we got back into the van and drove to a boardwalk.
The boardwalk gave us great views of some lounging gators and a bunch of birds. One of our group members is an avid birder and she was constantly looking through binoculars at all the different birds. Another interesting fact was that nearly all the invasive fish froze to death in the recent US cold snap so we saw a fair amount of dead fish floating in the water. On the way back to the car we saw the sunset, which was awesome! The mosquitoes actually weren’t bad.
Back at camp we had about 30 minutes to freshen up before dinner so I used that time to break out the bug zapper lantern that Brenda got me. It worked wonders and I wasn’t bothered by anything all night! The bug repellent shirt was pretty helpful too I think. Plus I brought a 98.95% deet bug spray.
Dinner was fish tacos, chips, and key lime pie. All very good. I’ll have to find the time to eat the cheese itz I bought at Publix earlier. (Grocery store chain in Florida). After dinner I chatted with everyone. Then I took a shower. It was stressed you need a headlamp at night to look for the super venomous water moccasin snakes and frogs/toads. It would suck to step on a frog we were toad. That about wraps up day 1!
Day 2
Ok so today I woke up at 6 because the neighboring tent alarm went off for 15 solid minutes. (He left his phone in the tent while he took a shower.) Anyways, breakfast was great! Sausage, fruit, and yogurt. We left at about 8am for the first adventure of the day!
Today we were canoeing ‘9 Mile Pond’. Mom and I were canoe buddies. Usually the power comes from the front and the heavier person at the back to steer. The problem was I was the heavier person and I’m usually in the front providing all the speed. So I sat in the back and provided the speed.
Canoeing the Everglades is like nothing I’ve done before. We started out in a pond with a fair bit of wind that kept trying to push us into the tall grass. So far we saw no gators in the pond.
After the first big open water zone we pressed on into a smaller ‘tunnel’ of mangroves. The chance of seeing a gator here was slim to none unless it was in the water under us, which would be a bit freaky I think.
The first hour or so was going through all of the tunnels. It was a lot of work to constantly brake, do a really sharp turn, and rocket forward. The original trail would indeed take us in a 9 mile loop, but the national park service is trying to reintroduce the farther sections back into the park.
This means that it’s tougher to canoe back there because the mangroves aren’t trimmed back like they are in the beginning. If the park didn’t trim the trail then it would grow in together on itself and thus be impossible to traverse.
We took a shortcut instead that brought us through an African safari type of ecosystem! There was a lot of wind here and we had to be constantly vigilant about keeping the canoe facing forwards. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife here, but there was an abundance of plants. Just remember that all the gators probably know you are there before you know the gators are around.
After finishing the shortcut we headed back towards the van / parking lot again. It took maybe 45 more minutes to reach the first of 2 ponds before we finished. Here we searched for a mega crocodile that was somehow stuck here.
You see, usually crocodiles stick to salt water, but they can survive in fresh water too. The difference between crocodiles and alligators is that croc’s tend to have a more aggressive personality, you can see the upper and lower teeth, and their snout is a V shape (while the gators sport a U shape).
We saw it on the far right edge of the pond basking in the sun. The monster 17 foot crocodile! It was a bit tough to get a picture because of the grass in the way, but you can google ‘17 foot crocodile at 9 mile pond Florida’ and get better pictures I think.
After putting away the canoes we headed to our next location. Lunch! Lunch consisted of assorted crackers, meats, cheese, and a croissant. As well as fruit. While we ate we had to watch out for crows as we were told they would try to steal our food.
We saw a shark carcass rolled over while walking on a boardwalk nearby. I wonder how that got here?
The mahogany hammock boardwalk was next up in the day and that was a boardwalk that brought us through a forest of mostly trees. There were plenty of vines, thorns, and other plans to look at as well. Pretty cool!
Pa-hay-okee tower overlook wasn’t very high, but it still offered a huge view of the Everglades. Most of the Everglades is a vast field of grass with about 1-2 feet of water and is thus known as the “river of grass”. From up high you could see a limitless sea of grass with cyprus trees dotted every so often. In the winter the cyprus trees drop their needles so they look dead when they are not. Overhead were a few vultures circling.
The walk at the tower wasn’t really that long so soon after making it back to the van we were on our way back to camp. There was the choice of rest at camp vs a final mini hike at Royal Palm. Mom and I decided to go on the hike.
We were back at the Anhinga trail! There was two options here: the Gumbo Limbo trail (mostly plants with fewer animals and more mosquitos) vs the Anhinga trail (potential gators, plants, birds, and probably no mosquitos). Pretty much everyone wanted to see more gators so off down the boardwalk we went. This turned out to be quite fun because we ended up seeing more gators than the first time here.
For dinner tonight our amazing chef made a bbq dinner, which was fabulous! After dinner I went to a ranger talk on invasive species. It’s pretty well known that the Burmese Python is a terrible problem because it eats basically everything. So if you walk into a campsite and see no raccoons tearing into trash…it’s because there aren’t any! Another invasive species is a tree called the Brazilian pepper tree. The Hole-in-the-Donut restoration project is a massive effort to stop / control the plant spread. Basically, when the Everglades became a park there were a few farmers on it that the National Park Service didn’t want to kick out immediately. Eventually they all left and over the years the Brazilian pepper plant population exploded. Now they are almost everywhere and almost impossible to kill off.
After the talk it was bed time!
Day 3
We started out this day at 8:30am with a relaxing 4 mile hike of the Long Pine Key nature trail. Usually it’s covered in about a foot of water, but in the dry season it experiences a drought and the trails are dry. Here I really got to experience the pine forest, while at the same time watching out for poison-wood trees. They were all over the place and us tall people really had to watch out for the overhanging branches.
The path was mainly an unmaintained dirt road, but about halfway we walked on the highway going towards the Nike Missile site. We found a snake skeleton by the road and that was the only hint of a snake that I saw the whole trip. We hiked about 9/10ths of a mile or something on this segment of the hike.
Next after some more pine forest was a clearing of knee high grass. Since it’s the dry season you can really see how the ecosystem changes. During the wet season this road is sort of impassable because of the foot or so of water on it. We went halfway down the road here before changing course and heading straight into the grass on a python-like trail. It would lead us back to camp.
One game that used to be played here was a hide and seek type game where one person would hide in the grass and the others would try to spot the person from the road. It was supposed to show what it would be like to spot a panther (mountain lion) in the grass. It was a pretty cool game for all of 5 minutes before the “panther” got bitten by fire ants! Nowadays, we just walk through the grass on the python path.
Back at camp we had about 30 minutes to change / chill before we headed to Flamingo Bay to go kayaking. I decided that I was absolutely not going to wear any long clothes! I would die of heat once I got on the water, so I wore just shorts and a t-shirt. As long as I kept up the 100 SPF sunscreen I’d be fine. Pretty mush everyone else had pants and a long sleeve shirt.
Once we were there we had a quick lunch made up of wraps, fruit, and cupcakes! Ben and Beth got me cupcakes for my birthday. So awesome! Once again there were a few crows on the lookout for a tastily meal, but we were good lookouts and kept them away. After lunch we got our life jackets and kayaks and headed into the water.
Since Mom wasn’t a huge fan of switching partners so I got to ride with her again, which was great since our chemistry is already golden. The plan was to paddle out to Christian Point, hang a left and continue along the coast to Snake Bight. It was hard work paddling into the wind for an hour! Wew!
Up to Christian Point we saw many types of birds such as pelicans and some wading birds (here is an example of my lack of knowledge). There were also a few crocodiles on the shore. The water was about 1-2ft deep for the entire kayaking session, so it wasn’t a huge concern if anyone fell in.
Upon reaching Snake Bight we were greeted with lemon sharks! Really cool to see a shark so close. See the kayaks stir up the fish who then attract sharks and birds to eat them. So going kayaking in the Florida Bay is a really good way to see wildlife. Eventually we reached the turnaround point and took a rest break before heading back.
Going back was a bit easier because the wind was suddenly not right in our faces. It also created these really cool waves that we got to ride all the way back into the marina. Once back I got my stamps and started on the Everglades / Biscayne / Big Cyprus junior ranger journey. If you get all the pins for these parks you get a special patch. I. Must. Have. That. Patch. I got a bit of flack for being an adult, but the haters are just missing out. Anyone can be a junior ranger!
At camp we finished the most epic birthday with some s’mores!
Day 4
Sunday was the last day of the adventure. The first stop of the day was the Ernest Coe visitors center, which is the main visitor’s center for the Everglades National Park. We were here long enough to take a few group pictures and tour the visitors center. I got a neat t-shirt from the gift shop as well as the stamps and got my first junior ranger badge. We also watched the park film, which was not too bad.
After the sign pictures we made our way to Biscayne National Park for more sign pictures. Ben and Beth thought it would be a good idea to wait until the last day to do the group pictures because we would be more comfortable getting in close together for the award winning shot.
After the pictures we went to the visitors center. Once we got out we did the Convoy Point trail all the way out to the end. The end is where you can see all the ships heading in/out of the marina. All the way there I saw families fishing. It was a very sunny day and there were a lot of people outside to take advantage of that.
Anyone who didn’t bring a snorkel and mask on the trip could rent their own here. Mom and I went there first to do just that after the walk. Turns out that they had a prescription mask!!! I can’t see without my glasses so this piece of tech was vital. After the rentals I headed to the top of the visitors center to do the pledge to become a Biscayne NP junior ranger. Once I completed that I got the badge. Only one left until the epic patch is Big Cyprus National Preserve. We had a quick lunch before being fitted with the flippers and wetsuits. Once all this was completed we were ready to get onto the boat.
Our captain was Adam and we had a navigator as well. Both were super laidback and told us all about the bay. We were going to two locations to snorkel: the first was mostly to practice and not have to worry about anything intense while the second location would be bigger and more intense.
On the way to the first we saw some dolphins, which evidently are a really rare sight while boating. Lucky us! It took maybe 25 minutes of sailing to get to the first spot. The depth was 4-7ft. depending on whether you were close to the boat vs close to the mangroves. Captain Adam said to get the most out of this location we needed to go right up to a cluster of mangroves, hold onto the roots, and stick our face into the gap. The fish would initially all hide deep in the darkness of the mangrove roots, but the longer you held on and stayed completely still the more likely they would come and check you out.
This is the first time I’ve been snorkeling and I must say it was a bit freaky to breath through a only a tube at first, but I got used to that quickly and started looking around. Sadly I don’t have pictures of this since a GoPro / waterproof camera is about $500 and I didn’t think buying one was worth it for just 3 hours of snorkeling. I first tried out just staring at the ocean floor, but since I’m not one for plants that became a bit boring and I headed for the mangroves. Initially the concept of looking for a bunch of eyes looking at you from the darkness was cool, but in reality it was more fun to go into the deeper water and look for big fish.
There were a bunch of different types ranging from baby 5 inch long barracuda, to a yellow fish with blue dots that lit up as you got closer, to a whole school of fish. Really quite fun! I even saw a 2 ft long Barracuda swimming about 10 yards away. I had heard they are dangerous, but I doubt a small one is. No sharks, crocodiles, dolphins, manatees, or submarines here sadly.
The next location was past the bay into the open ocean. The water was still just as clear as the bay and it was about 12 – 25ft deep said the Captain. There was a reef here that was about a basketball court in size and that was what we would be exploring. There was a Great White shark ping off the keys a few days prior and I was secretly hoping that we might see it even though it would scare the life out of me. There were actually waves here and I had to be a bit careful with the position of the snorkel because a few times a wave would swamp it! Not fun!
Near the end of the session I was about as far away from the boat as you could be without going beyond the reef when I get a sharp stinging pain on the back of my hand! I looked all over the place for a jellyfish, but saw nothing. I had to head back to the boat right away anyways because it was time to go back to the marina. I’d say a jellyfish sting is kind of like a bunch of needles poking your hand. Didn’t really hurt, but hard to ignore. A few others had stings, but the captain sprayed the affected area with vinegar. That seemed to help a bit. (It neutralizes the stingers that haven’t stung yet).
Once back at the visitors center (marina) we got off the boat, changed into regular clothes, and got back into the van for a shortish ride to the hotel. Once at the hotel Mom and I said our goodbyes and went to checkin for the night. We decided to walk to a restaurant at the nearby City Place, which was a mistake because there weren’t really any sidewalks on the busy streets. The restaurant was Tap 42 and it was sort of meh, but the burger was good!
(I didn’t think this needed a Departure header since it’s so short, but this paragraph is the conclusion.) The trip back to Boston was really simple and I’m sure you have flown before so I’ll leave the specifics to your imagination. Overall it was really nice to not have to plan out my own trip to the Everglades because it would’ve been a major headache and I definitely wouldn’t have done all the canoeing, kayaking, and snorkeling that I did. The REI trips are totally worth it and Ben / Beth are the best guides ever!
Trip Stats
- No BB8
- Mosquito bites: 0
- Tents I folded up: 2
- Times I wish I bought a GoPro: 57
- Lamborghini’s at the beach: 7
- Cruise ships seen: 2
- My most fun experience?: snorkeling!
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