Everglades National Park
While [tag]Everglades National Park[/tag] is the third largest national park in 48 states, if you compute the road density, it is the least developed piece of land in lower 48. There is more room between roads and trails here than even the most remote areas of Montana or Wyoming. And I can believe it. For the entire park, there is one main road that stabs through the middle of the park (Main Park Rd, would you believe it?) and one other shorter road in the north. The rest is, as the ranger put it, a 50 mile wide river with swamps on each side, emptying into a huge shallow basin covered in mangrove trees. And that’s about it. But don’t let that fool you, I found plenty to do!
Two really cool things to do in the park – take the starlight walk around the Anhinga Trail and take the ranger-lead canoe trip (meet at Flamingo). The starlight walk is interesting because many of the animals that wait out the day begin to become active at night – birds, bats and specifically alligators. Like cats and dogs, alligators have a reflective lining behind their retina that allows light to cross the retina twice, increasing their night vision. This layer also reflects flashlight beams very well. Imagine, then, standing on a boardwalk 3-4 feet above a black lake and seeing nothing. Then, click on your flashlight and point it at the lake’s surface. The lake is smooth enough that none of the light reflects from the surface, so it stays black. What DOES reflect are the eyes of the alligators. And not just one or two pairs, but dozens of brilliant pairs of dots, all swimming around the lake’s surface. Very eerie, and not just a little bit scary.
The ranger lead canoe trip is a don’t miss. While there aren’t anymore running until this fall (I caught the second to last one), it is basically a nature walk, but in canoes. You paddle for a while, then circle the canoes and the ranger gives a mini-lesson about birds or water quality or mangroves. And this is all while you are seeing herons in the distance, gazing through the crystal clear water or fending off attack mangroves. Oh, and there are ‘gators, too. See, I was sharing a canoe with a guy that was also traveling full time, and we ran into one on the way back. Literally. With our aluminum canoe. He wasn’t too happy with us. We were going down this narrow channel between two sets of mangroves. It started with these fish leaping out of the water and into our canoe. “Odd,” we thought, “what are they trying to get away from?” And that’s when we bumped into the side of an 8 to 10 foot alligator! Oops! It thrashed against the bottom of our canoe as we slowly drifted over it, whew! The last canoe in line had to wait until this “natural speed bump” swam slowly out of the channel into the open lake, throwing dirty looks over its shoulder the whole time. I didn’t know that ‘gators had shoulders, much less the ability to throw dirty looks. Learn something new every day.
And as the sun went down on a beautiful day, I was able to snap one shot through the cypress trees of the setting moon, one of my favorites so far. There are also a couple of shots of a pair of barred owls that I wished would have come out better. But enjoy the photos. I sure enjoyed the park.
[tags]canoe,alligator,Florida,Everglades,National Park[/tags]
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April 1st, 2006 at 10:00 pm
The name alligator comes from the Spanish words el lagarto which means the lizard that eats crazy travelers in canoes. The name was used by early Spanish explorers in the Americas.
When an alligator closes its mouth, the fourth tooth from the tip of its lower jaw fits into a socket in the upper jaw and cannot be seen. When a crocodile closes its mouth around the bow of a canoe, that tooth can be seen.
Alligators do not care which type of canoe they take up residence in. Usually found in natural wetlands, and swamps, however they do also enjoy manmade wetlands and swamps. They are also often found in canals, storm drains, canoes, swimming pools, and ponds on golf courses.
American alligators have been clocked swimming as fast as 25 mph. Usually in pursuit of a canoe.
Some alligators living in the more northern states find themselves in very cold temperature during the winter. Temperatures so low that they get trapped beneath the ice, they keep their nostrils above water slowing down their breathing. This is the perfect time to float over them in a canoe.
An American alligator usually eats one canoe (two occupants) every 3 to 4 days. An adult alligator can eat up to 440 pounds of food per week (two travelers), but can also go months without eating at all.
The first hunters of the alligators were the Seminole indians. They lured alligators out of their holes by floating tourists in canoes. They were extremely efficient at killing alligators, making use of every part of the body.
About 12,000-14,000 nuisance canoe-eating alligators are reported in Florida annualy. About 5,000 of these are captured and killed by specially licensed trappers.
November 12th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
[...] Recalling the wonderful time I had at the moonlight walk in the Everglades last spring (was it really such a short time ago?), I jumped at the opportunity to visit the falls at night. The 17th was the night of the full moon, and the park offered a dinner/moonlight train/moonlight walk out to the falls. [...]