Chapter 7: Collier-Seminole State Park & The Everglades Part 1 (Feb. 5-11)

The drive from Ross Prairie to Collier-Seminole would be one our longest inside Florida of our trip. We got on the road by 9:30 with a packed lunch. It was a straight shot south on I75 until it turns east. We stopped only to eat our lunch at a rest area and continued south when the freeway went east. From 1:00 on we enjoyed listening to MSU men beat u/m. (Later we found out that MSU women also won their game against u/m!!) The park is just east of Marco Island and we arrived about 3:00. The campground is pretty discouraging; the bathrooms are old and our site is extremely narrow and pretty short. There is no TV reception and only a weak phone signal. But at least we are on the outside of the loop with “jungle” behind us—there are sites crammed on the inside of the loop with nothing between them and other campers. So we’ll make the best of it and be glad we’re well situated for exploring the Everglades. The area has a variety of protected lands including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Reserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, 10,000 Island National Wildlife Reserve and Collier-Seminole State Park, as well as the Miccosukee and Seminole Reservations that all fit together like puzzle pieces so there are 1 or 2 million (we heard both; I believe the latter is correct) acres of land. After eating the leftover hot dogs we jumped in the truck and ended up driving out to Marco Island, where we happened across the Marco Island Brewery at which to watch the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Yea Eli Manning!!!

Monday we rode our bikes about 3 miles around the park, exploring and taking the one trail within the area of the campground. The Royal Palm Hammock Nature Trail/Boardwalk was a one mile loop with a spur out into a marsh. It had rained most of the night and although it wasn’t raining during our time out it was very humid and steamy. We saw some Royal Palms and the Gumbo Limbo (nicknamed the tourist tree for its red peeling bark) in the hammock before the marsh. The mosquitoes are the worst we’ve seen but we have been assured they will be much worse during the wet season. After finishing our nachos from the night before as our lunch today, we drove to Everglade City. We took about 12 miles of the Tamiami Parkway and saw egrets, a flock of storks, anhinga, and many, many alligators trying to soak up the occasional sun that would peak through the clouds in-between occasional showers. There are many road signs in this area warning of bobcat and Florida Panther crossings. Seeing either one would be quite rare and exciting. We also saw the most expensive gas yet--$3.89—and were happy we didn’t have to buy there. There is an Everglades National Park Visitor Center (one of five) in Everglade City and we caught the end of a ranger talk that was an introduction to the park in that area which, like Florida City to the southeast, is really an aquatic attraction, not land-based. Afterwards we went to the gift shop to buy a few things and Marv realized that he must have left his credit card at the Brewery the night before. When we called to check on it the person who could open the safe to look for it was picking his kids up at school and wouldn’t be back till 3:30. We started driving back towards the island but stopped by the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Reserve Marsh Trail. It was 78° but the 87% humidity made it seem much warmer. We walked about a mile along it and climbed the observation platform to look out over the marsh, which was full of anhinga, ibis, herons, egrets, and all the birds we can’t identify yet. There were also alligators in two sizes, and gar (fish) in the pool near the platform. The Brewery did have the credit card so we went back to Marco Island to get it and to do grocery shopping to last us the rest of the time in the Everglades. We made “pizzas” for dinner with flour tortillas and had big salads and spent the evening trying to dry out the inside of the camper (and our bedding) with the air conditioning. We ended up running it on low all night long.

Tuesday was our day to see the Shark Valley, another of the entrances to the Everglades. The day was somewhat cooler and the humidity was around 66%, making us much more comfortable. There was more sun than yesterday but we still had 3 or 4 20 second showers through the day. We packed a picnic and took off right after breakfast to drive about an hour to the entrance. This was Marv’s chance to buy his National Park Senior Pass which is good for his lifetime. The $10 pass saved us four dollars right off the bat when we bought our tickets for the tram ride, which is a guided two hour ride on the 15 mile drive through the area. We learned all about the “River of Grass”, which is the outstanding feature of the Everglades. I realized I had always thought they were more jungle-like, similar to the Okefenokee Swamp, but the latter is a Cyprus swamp and the Everglades are grasses in flowing water. In 2000 a bill was passed for a massive restoration plan that will take 30 years to complete and hopefully stop the damage humans have caused in the last 100 years or so to this delicate and complex environment. We saw and learned about many different birds including herons, egrets, wood storks, anhinga, and purple gallinule. We saw several kinds of turtles and fish and, most of all, we learned all about alligators while seeing so very many in all sizes. Our guide waded out into the shallow water to show us handfuls of the life-giving substance called periphyton. The sponge-like mass floats on top of the water during the wet season and sinks to retain water and sustain egg masses and microorganisms during the dry season. At the halfway point there is an observation tower and we had about 20 minutes to stop. We intended to take the short trail along the water there but we had barely begun when we came across one of the largest alligators of the trip which was lying right in the middle of the trail! There was no arguing with or moving it so we settled for the views from the tower. At the end of the ride we walked back about a quarter mile so we could get pictures and movies of a mother gator with about 22 babies right next to the road. We ate our picnic sitting on a log and then headed back towards the campground. As we left the park there were about 7 cars lined up, waiting for their turn to come into the park so we were very happy we had begun the day early. We stopped at three places in Big Cypress, two visitor centers and a long boardwalk. The first visitor center had a short video and then we walked on their boardwalk along the canal that goes the length of Tamiami Trail. It had many, many alligators who were actively feeding on the “walking catfish”. An enthusiastic ranger was available to answer questions and she mentioned several times how unusual it is to see the alligators feeding and how lucky we were. We had the nearby boardwalk nearly to ourselves as it headed into a strand (Cyprus trees in a gathering around deeper water). At the second visitor center there were two manatees floating along like giant phantoms in the canal. They had been there for most of the day and soon after we got there and watched for awhile they suddenly dived deeper into the dark water and we couldn’t see them. We considered ourselves very lucky to have arrived before they disappeared. Back at the campground I took a shower and washed my hair before we grilled chicken and made a black bean and rice mixture for dinner. I also made most of our picnic lunch for the next day. We went to bed early so we could rise before the sun and get on our way to the main Everglades visitor center on the east side of the state.