According to the venerable Oswald guide, if you hike one trail in the Everglades, it should be this one. Really, a trail that is under a mile? Yes. Put Anhinga at the top of your list if you're going to visit the Everglades. The scenery is beautiful and the wildlife everywhere. The trail is mostly on a boardwalk and what isn't on the boardwalk is paved, so it is quite easy to walk. I'd imagine that it would be no problem in a wheelchair. When Ginger and I started on this hike, I hoped to see an alligator. We saw more than a dozen. Here's one of the first:
This early part of the trail is not on an elevated boardwalk, and some of the alligators hang out near the path. Be careful! Here are two birds, utterly unconcerned with all of the tourists passing by:
A neat tree off the side of the trail:
My cameras gave me mostly blurry pictures on this trip, so why was this one so clean? Who knows. Soon, we saw an alligator drifting silently through the water:
And another resting on the bank:
By this point we had walked maybe a quarter mile or less and seen a half-dozen alligators, and I quit trying to get a picture of each and every one. But here's a beautiful white ibis:
And a nice little scene with a cormorant drying its wings. When their wings get wet, which they often do since they go after food in the water, they have to dry them before they can fly:
An overlook from the boardwalk showed us this scene, as about eight alligators (some of them out of the shot) are hanging out in this spot:
A little shelter along the trail has a wildlife camera on top of it, but this bird, wary of surveillance, has other ideas:
I don't think they ended up visible in this photo, but there is an alligator in the water back near the trees and a lovely little bird called a purple gallinule among the lily pads. Neither Ginger nor I had ever heard of this kind of bird, but it's quite colorful:
Another cormorant, this one right by the trail, tries to get dry:
Even without the wildlife, the hypnotic beauty of the Everglades' wetlands would make this a pleasant hike. With the wildlife, it's a really fantastic place to visit.
Gumbo Limbo Trail
Right next to the amazing Anhinga Trail is the Gumbo Limbo Trail, a short (under half a mile) loop through a dense hardwood hammock.
Why am I wearing a fleece pullover in South Florida in March? Believe it or not, it was quite chilly! Gumbo Limbo is an easy paved path through a very cool environment.
Despite the sunny day, little light made its way through the dense forest.
Long Pine Key Trail
I wanted to take a longer hike in the Everglades, and settled on Long Pine Key Nature Trail, which is seven miles from one end to the other, and 14 round trip since you have to go back. I used a map to devise a loop on different trails so I wouldn't have to return the same way, and ended up hiking just over 15 miles. That may sound like a long way, and it is, but bear in mind that no part of Everglades NP goes over eight feet above sea level. Even the longest trails here are pretty easy since there is no elevation gain! A blurry forest early on the hike:
It wasn't blurry in person. If you hike this trail, bring plenty of strong bug spray. I sprayed bug repellent on myself, and still got mosquito bites all over in the first mile of hiking. Soon, I paused and sprayed every inch of my face, clothing, hat, shoes, socks, and backpack. They STILL bothered me, but a bit less after soaking myself in bug spray. Long Pine Key follows what appears to be an old road in and out of forests. Here's a spot where it has ventured out into the open:
...And back into the forest of tall, spindly trees:
After seven miles, the trail brings you by Pine Glades Lake, a stunning, placid lake:
I expected to see wildlife on this trail, especially near the lake, but must have gotten unlucky. I saw one bird and nothing else in all 15+ miles! Passing the lake, I arrived at the park road.
My map showed a four mile hiking trail that branched off from the road, paralleled it for four miles, then crossed the road again. I hiked a mile or so down the road, and right on cue saw the path leading off to the left. I followed the trail, which has no name that I can find, for four miles with the forest on one side and flat treeless grasslands on the other:
Looking up at the trees:
Further along the path, with some ghostly film errors:
In this area, I kept hearing creatures rustling in the thick underbrush, but never saw any of them. I steered clear in case there were alligators. Would they attack a six-foot-two adult man? I'm not sure, but I didn't want to take the chance. The path was supposed to cross the road and meet back up with Long Pine Key Nature Trail near where I started, but I couldn't find the path on the south side of the road. I walked a bit in both directions looking for it (even though the map showed it directly across the street), and gave up and simply walked back to my car on the road. Perhaps I simply got unlucky with wildlife, but I didn't see any along this trail even though it was quite long. It was neat to see the constantly changing environments, however, and to take an extended hike.