State(s): Florida
Link: https://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm
Days: 3
Month: December
Hotel: Best Western Plus Miami Executive Airport Hotel & Suites
Hikes: 9 = 7.65 miles
Ice Cream: Hollywood Ice Cream Co
For this trip, we flew into Miami and took a road-trip from there to Key West. Along the way, we went to the Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Biscayne National Park, and Dry Tortugas National Park.
Day 0
On our travel day to the Everglades, we had a 1.5 hour delay due to storms in and around Florida.
Once we finally landed, we checked into our hotel, then went to Kuba Kitchen for dinner. We never had Cuban food before so we relied on our waitress a bit to help us navigate the menu – she was awesome! We started off with some mango juice and guava juice; both were very good. I ordered the Kuba fried rice with chicken. Colleen ordered Pollo En Salsa De Champiñones. We always share our food, especially when it’s a new dishes we never had before. Between our two dinners we had 3 sides so we picked a few different things (with the help of our waitress). In all we had fried green plantains (Tostones), fried sweet plantains (Maduros), and fried yuca (Yuca Frita). Neither of us were fans of Tostones but everything else was amazing!
Day 1
We started our day by going to Shark Valley Visitor Center. We arrived around 8:30AM and the line of cars was already to the main road. It started raining as we were getting to the parking lot, thankfully it was a slow rain. After checking in for our tram tour and getting a stamp in the visitor center, we headed to the Bobcat Boardwalk Trail, an easy 0.4 mile one way walk. We started on one side of the parking lot and ended up at the other. We still had more time so we decided to take the boardwalk back to where we started. We saw an egret (bird) along the way.
We were planning to do the Otter Cave Hammock Trail but it was closed.
The rain stopped and we started the Shark Valley Tram Tour. On the tour we learned about sawgrass (and not to grab it as we were driving by). Part way through we had a snapping turtle cross the road. It went right in front of the tram so we had to stop, then it went under the tram. The driver gently guided the turtle across the road. We stopped at the Shark Valley Observation Tower. While at the tower, we saw turtles and birds. We thought we weren’t going to see an alligator until Colleen spotted one! Our guide told us about a video online that was recently filmed from the observation tower where an alligator killed a python: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zhMm-fOD20
We headed back on the tram and saw a lot more alligators. At one point a kid was sitting on his bike right next to one and had no idea. We also saw an Anhinga – also known as a snake bird.
In all, we saw a lot of birds, 5 alligators, a snapping turtle, and a few sea turtles. We saw one alligator right at the end of the tram ride so we quickly jumped off and headed back to it to snap some picture. This was a fun tour!
Next we ate our quick lunch – PB & J.
Coopertown Airboat Tours was next on our agenda. After checking in, we saw some alligators, including a baby one we got to pet. We also were able to pet a 90 lb python too. Finally, it was our turn with our boat driver and guide, Sam. The boat ride was a lot of fun. We saw 2 alligators, some egrets, and lots of trees. Along the way, Sam was very informative and funny.
The next stop was Hollywood Ice Cream Co. We each had an ice cream sandwich; they were really good.
We wanted to do something special on our anniversary so we had reservations at Hollywood Hot Glass where we took turns working with our glass master. I made a soap dispenser and Colleen made a bubble bowl. We had a lot of fun!
For dinner we wanted to try more food we’ve never had before so we stopped at Pearl of the Island for Haitian food. I got Griot (Fried Pork). Colleen got Spicy Cajun Salmon. We both had passion fruit juice. Everything was really good.
Our final stop was at Chocolata Bakery & Cafe for chocolate Romanian desserts. Yummy!
Day 2
First thing this morning we headed to Big Cypress National Preserve.
After Big Cypress, we continued our journey and checked in for our Ten Thousands Island Boat Tour. We originally had a 12:15pm tour but were able to move it earlier, to 11:45am. We still had time before the tour so we went to the short (roughly 0.75 mile) easy Everglades City Boardwalk. The boardwalk is a nice walk through the woods. We saw lots of trees and eventually made it to some open water. Once we were at the water, we watched air boats for a bit, then headed back.
Next we ate our quick lunch, you guessed it, PB & J.
Shortly after we got back by the dock our Ten Thousand Islands Boat Tour started. Early in our tour our captain saw some trash in the water so he quickly chased it down while the deckhand grabbed a net to take the trash out of the water. It was nice they were able to clean up the water a bit; it left a good impression.
As we continued with our tour, we saw lots of birds and eventually, dolphins! Along the way, we learned about the Mangrove Trees that grow by salt water. As time went on we ended up seeing more and more dolphins, it was a beautiful sight. We tried to capture pictures but they were too quick to get any good ones.
We learned about the Gulf Coast Visitor Center getting destroyed by Hurricane Irma in September of 2017. There’s a new one getting built in its place; we were able to see it from the water. Overall, this was a very cool tour. Both the captain and his deckhand were awesome!
Next, we headed to Yellow Green Farmers Market. This was very different from any farmers market we went to before. There were many vendors. It was both inside a building and outside in tiki’s. The food there was very good. We split a jerk chicken quesadilla, an arepa stuffed with BBQ chicken (from a different vendor) and a side of guava juice. It was all very good! Overall, this was an awesome market with lots of different cultures, food, and items to purchase.
The final stop of the night was the Museum of Ice Cream. It was cool but a little disappointing when there wasn’t much ice cream included. Despite the advertising, think of this place as more of a museum with a few small samples along the way. Technically the samples are “unlimited” but they are mostly weird flavors. They do a great job of making you want more ice cream – any of the normal scooped ice cream or sundaes are an up charge at the end. Overall, we did have fun but I’d warn people about setting proper expectations.
Day 3
We started our morning stopping to stamp our passport book at Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center.
As we continued, we realized the tire pressure was low on our rental car so we started heading toward Guy Bradley Visitor Center (Flamingo) since it looked like there was a service center (when we eventually made it, there wasn’t a place or person able to help with the tire pressure unfortunately).
We tried stopping at Bear Loop Trail – it was closed off to cars so we didn’t go to it. Based on the map, it appeared we would have had to walk another mile or so to get to the start of the trail. This morning wasn’t starting off too great, but we still made the best of it.
Our first trail we finally made it to was Mahogany Hammock, an easy 0.5 mile boardwalk through trees. We saw lots of birds along the way.
Next up was Eco Pond Trail, an easy 0.5 miles trail, which takes you to an observation point. Once there you can see the water, which was murky. We saw more birds!
Then we made it to Guy Bradley/Flamingo Visitor Center. Up on the second floor, there’s a window overlook to the water. We were able to see an alligator in the water. One of the rangers let us borrow binoculars so we could see it better.
At this point, the temperature was over 80* and very humid. Additionally, there were a lot of bugs on the trails and bug spray wasn’t doing a whole lot, overall not our kind of weather so we didn’t do too much hiking. We ended up walked around the marina and checking out the water. By the boat launch area, we saw Freddy and his girlfriend (crocodiles).
After our walking around, we purchased some ice cream from the store, and ate our PB & J sandwiches for lunch.
Snake Bight Trail (a play on words) was next up on our list. It was an easy 3.6 mile out and back trail that was pretty straight out to the water. Due to all the recent rain, it was very muddy at the beginning and end of the trail. At the start of the trail the water an interesting copper color. Once we made it to the end, there was a boardwalk we went across to take some pictures.
Then we went to the West Lake Trail, an easy 0.5 mile boardwalk. It had a lot of mangrove trees and nice views of the lake. When we were at the lookout point, it started raining.
Next was Pahayokee Overlook, an easy 0.2 mile boardwalk. It was a nice little walk through some swamps. We saw some fascinating birds.
Another short trail was the Pinelands Trail, an easy 0.4 miles. It goes through a lot of greenery.
Our final Everglades stamp was at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. The first trail there we went on was the Anhinga Trail, an easy 0.8 mile walk. There’s a lot of water around this trail. We saw, you guessed it, anhingas and a couple alligators. We also saw turtles, an egret, and a blue heron. Our final trail for the day was the Gumbo Limbo Trail, an easy 0.4 miles trail. It had several Gumbo Limbo Trees with red pealing bark. This turned out to be a very cool walk.
On our way to the hotel, we stopped at the Robert Is Here fruit market. We had no idea how big this place was – we originally thought this was going to be a fruit stand, it turned to be much more. We ended up getting fresh pineapple, smoothie #3, and a peppermint Oreo chocolate milkshake. It was all very good.
After checking in to our new hotel, we headed to Autentica Taqueria for dinner. Food was amazing! We started off with fresh pineapple juice. I got the al pastor tacos, and Colleen got the chicken tacos. They had homemade tortilla shells, which made the tacos that much better. Their salsa and chips were also very good.
Day 4
We headed to Biscayne National Park.
