Just inside the park, past the Ernest Coe Visitor Center is a turnoff for Royal Palm, the first part

Authorized in 1934 and formally established in 1947, Everglades National Park is the first national park created for the protection discount rental cars phoenix of wildlife rather than protection of scenic landscapes or historic cultural discount rental cars phoenix sites. Of the parks in the lower 48, only Death Valley and Yellowstone are larger, but the area protected by the park represents perhaps one quarter of the original wetlands expanse that became known as the Everglades.
If you are flying in, the closest airport to the park entrance discount rental cars phoenix is Miami International, but you can probably save a little in many cases by flying into Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach. On the Gulf side, Tampa and Fort Myers are also close enough to be gateway discount rental cars phoenix cities.
If driving from anywhere other than south Florida, IH 75, IH 95 and the Florida Turnpike will get you to the park. While it is a toll way, I must say from my experience, the turnpike is a very good alternative to the interstates.
Getting discount rental cars phoenix to the park and touring will pretty much require a vehicle, either discount rental cars phoenix your own or one on a tour. The coastal areas can be accessed by boats, but there are restrictions on landings and the shallowness of Florida Bay can make navigation difficult for larger watercraft with deeper keels.
Since the 2005 hurricane season, the only why to stay in the park is to camp at one of the forecountry campgrounds at Long Pine Key near the park entrance or Flamingo at the end of the main Park Road or at the many backcountry campsites, many located on chickees, open air, elevated platforms with thatched roofs. Most backcountry sites are along the Wilderness Waterway that leads from the Flamingo Visitor Center to the Gulf Coast Visitor Center.
discount rental cars phoenix Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma destroyed the 103 room lodge that at been at Flamingo, though plans are currently underway discount rental cars phoenix to replace it with more modern, eco-friendly lodging in the form of a smaller lodge restaurant, elevated duplex cottages, a seasonal village of eco-tents and reconfigured marina that can accomodate houseboats. The project is in the final stages of planning, so final construction of the project is still years away.
If you don't want to rough it camping, your best options will be lodging options outside the park. Depending on the areas of the park you want to visit, you can stay in either Everglades City at the northwest corner of the park, or for access to the main Park Road, the Florida City/Homestead area. There are many hotels to choose from in these sprawling suburbs of greater Miami.
The park is open year round, and while some species of birds can be found in the park regardless of the time of year, the best time or year for viewing the wildlife tends to be during the dry season from December to April. Not only do birds come here to winter during the colder months of the year because of the warmer temperature of south Florida, but the dryer conditions within the park, including lower water levels, eases the pursuit discount rental cars phoenix of food such as fish, crustaceans and small amphibians.
The Everglades are so flat and near sea level that even small differences in elevation can have an enormous impact. One such example is Shark Valley. While the term "valley" generally evokes an area between two mountain ranges, in the Everglades, the only difference is the ridges defining the valley are much, much smaller in scale, measured in inches rather than thousands of feet. Much of the freshwaters draining into the park are channeled into several sloughs, the Shark River Slough through Shark Valley chief among them. Shark Valley is home to one of the parks visitor centers, but the reason to come is to travel the road into the valley. You can't take your car. Tours are either on a guided tram tour, by bicycle, or for the really brave, on foot. The 15 mile loop road was built before the establishment of the park when the Humble Oil Company drilled for oil in the marshes.
The tour of Shark Valley is often the highlight for visitors. From the tram tour, you can see just about any species of bird that can be found in the park as well as plenty of alligators. While the Park Service tries to dampen the expectation of seeing the creatures, it is rare for them not to be seen during the course of the two hour tour. At the halfway discount rental cars phoenix point in the road, at the point where the road penetrates its deepest into the sawgrass marshes, stands an observation tower with a viewing deck 45 feet above the surrounding landscape offering views of up to 20 miles into the park.
The tram tours are often sold out. Reservations are strongly recommended for the times when reservations are accepted discount rental cars phoenix (morning and late afternoon) while midday tours are on a strict first come, first serve basis. Parking is also an issue as the parking lot often cannot accommodate the throngs of visitors, necessitating parking along the highway discount rental cars phoenix creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians. Compounding access issues, construction on the new bridge to help rehabilitate water flow into the park can cause traffic jams. Plan accordingly so you don't miss your tram reservation.
The Miccosukee tribe of native Americans maintain a village on their reservation land along the Tamiami Highway just west of Shark Valley entrance to the park. Here you can watch tribe members create various crafts such as their intricate beadwork, woodworking, doll making and weaving. A museum teaches visitors about the history and culture of the tribe, which broke away from the Seminoles in the 1950's, eventually gaining recognition as an independent tribe. Tribe members also offer airboat tours into the park via the canals running through the area.
Just inside the park, past the Ernest Coe Visitor Center is a turnoff discount rental cars phoenix for Royal Palm, the first part of the park to be protected when the Florida Legislature set it aside as a state park under the stewardship of the Florida Federation discount rental cars phoenix of Women's Clubs. Today, Royal Palm consists of a small visitor center, a self guided nature trail and hundreds of feet of boardwalks around ponds and pools teeming with wildlife, particularly the anhinga birds the trail is named for. The birds are so used to humans that they allow you to get very close to them, making it a prime location for bird photography for those without very long lenses.
From the entrance to the park to the visitor center discount rental cars phoenix and marina at Flamingo, the Park Road travel 38 miles through some of the diverse areas of the park including the pinelands, cypress hammocks, coastal prairie and mangrove forests. Along the way there are several short hiking trails and canoe trails as well as turnoffs for a hammock that includes the largest mahogany tree in the U.S. and the Pa-Hay-Okee overlook boardwalk offering elevated views into the marshes. At the end of the road lies Flamingo, a village with a visitor center and a marina. From here you can book an air boat tour or arrange other boat tours into the park or into Florida Bay. With the restaurant associated with the Flamingo lodge closed due to hurricane discount rental cars phoenix damage, the general store at Flamingo remains the only place you can buy food within the park. The marina area is also one of the prime locations for spotting the American saltwater crocodile.
Adjacent to Everglades National Park to the north along the western part of the park is Big Cypress National Preserve. discount rental cars phoenix While similar to a national park, national preserves differing in allowing some types of hunting. This park, as the name suggests, protects thousands of groves of bald cypress trees in the high elevations of the Everglades. Several roadside parks in the preserve make for excellent birdwatching locations. A nature trail off the Loop Road in the preserve offers the opportunity to see the rare Liguus tree snails. discount rental cars phoenix If you are into photography, stopping at Clyde Butcher's discount rental cars phoenix gallery near Ochopee discount rental cars phoenix is a must. The famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams, to his regret, never visited the Everglades, but we are treated discount rental cars phoenix to photography as stunning as Adam's as Butcher has spent a lifetime dedicated to the black and white large format form of photography principally within the parks of South Florida. They have a quality about them that would make you think Adams must have collaborated with the photographer. Most of butcher's images were captured in large format discount rental cars phoenix and he utilizes 4x5, 5x7, 8x10 and a whooping 12x20 camera.
This has been another installment in the Park Avenue "Things To Know Before discount rental cars phoenix You Go..." series. discount rental cars phoenix Previous diaries in this series have covered Yellowstone , Yosemite , Olympic , Glacier Bay , Acadia and Arches discount rental cars phoenix . You can vote which park to cover next by visiting the Park Avenue Photo Friday Open Thread discount rental cars phoenix diaries. Also be sure to catch the group's less travel-orented park series on Thursdays; this week musing85 will be presenting a feature on Zion National Park.
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parks are going to be around until Yellowstone becomes a mega-volcano, a man made catastrophe awaits the Everglades. It may recover from too little water from when sugar plantations were draining it but