Day 42, Camp 13 - Everglades National Park, Flamingo Campground, FL

2008/12/22
Day 42, Camp 13 (8 nights @ $8 per nite)
Everglades National Park
Flamingo Campground, FL

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We drove back down to the bottom of Florida... through Homestead, SW into the Everglades National Park on Monday, Dec. 22.
The campground is very flat and open... but we got a nice site under a Mahogany tree, providing a little shade. In the ensuing eight days, we drove about 180 miles back and forth, up and down the 35 miles of park road, walking virtually every trail and canoeing many of the canoe routes. We visited the Visitor Center several times... hanging around the Marina area, watching shore birds and hundreds of White Pelicans on a near off-shore sand bar.. We watched the Crocodiles on many occasions and saw one which was so old she had no teeth! The ranger said she'd been living like that for several years, apparently still catching fish and gumming them to death... ... or swallowing them whole. The only place in the world where you can see Crocodiles and Alligators in the same place!

This was very pleasant stay with great weather. Dry camping with no electric or water... but the bathrooms had cold (very) showers and you could haul water to put in your camper. At $8 a nite it was very nice.

We met Frank & Barb here... a couple who stopped by to say 'hi'... fellow Airstreamers who had a 34 footer and had lived in it full-time for 6 years! Many tips and much advice was given!. We also met Alan & Lois in the Marina... they were on a very well-outfitted sailboat... a 37' ketch... having come down the inland waterway from PA!.... on the water for 4 months! They invited us aboard for some wine and snacks and great talk. What amazing people you do meet!

We spent Christmas here and it was very peaceful and lovely. The stars were incredible. Venus and Jupiter rising by the moon.

The accompanying pics on my Picasa site show the trails, trips and travels. An attempt has been made to name the various trails and canoe routes and the pics of that area follow.

The Flamingo area used to have a lodge, restaurant, cafe... with drinks and live music, etc.... but most was devastated by the two hurricanes of '05... Katrina & Wilma. They brought 7 foot storm surges ashore...to an area only 3' above sea level! The entire area was flooded and left under a foot of mud. Nature has made an amazing recovery but mankind has not. The lodge and restaurant/cafe are in ruins and being torn down. Plans are in the works to re-build.

The birds and gators were incredible and everywhere... yet I spoke to people who had been there 40 years ago, in their teens, when the skies were literally darkened by the flocks of shore birds flying over the campground every morning & evening. The birds are now at about 10% of where they were. The Pinelands are 20% of there original area. The overall Everglades are a mere 1/7th of their original area. All this had been lost to water 'management', flood control, irrigation, residential use, etc. A plan is underway to return more water to the Everglades.

The Everglades are the largest wildlife preserve East of the Mississippi. It was the first National Park to be created because of its biological diversity and significance. There is no other 'Everglades' anywhere else in the world.