5. Everglades National Park

Leaving Jonathan Dickinson Park, we headed to the wilderness of far south Florida; whole different world filled with the magnificent sights and sounds of nature in all its glory at the Everglades National Park.

The largest park in the National Park system, Everglades comprises some 1.5 million acres. It has several access points; we stayed at the Flamingo Campground. The Flamingo complex is 48 miles from the entrance to the park and is very near the southernmost point in the continental US as shown in this GPS view of our location:

Lacking most cell phone service, TV reception, grocery or other stores, you can feel pretty isolated in a place like this. The campground itself, while perfectly adequate, is somewhat barren except for the coarse tufts of grass all about (for some unknown reason Duffy really dislikes walking on the grass here). Our site was spacious, however. 

By the late 40's, it was clear that the few inhabitants of the southern tip of Florida were living in an area of great importance and natural beauty unique in all the world. It was soon designated a National Park, the largest such park in the US.

We decided to take a trail near the entrance of the park, the Anhinga trail. This ¾ mile boardwalk takes you into an area of swamp, hammocks, and open vistas with quite a variety of wildlife. At one point there were at least a dozen alligators laying in the warm sun, and we saw a few swimming in a stream.

Many Anhingas were drying their feathers, and herons and egrets were looking for a late meal.

 

Next morning we were down at the dock to take the Florida Bay tour. We were a little surprised to see an Osprey nest right there on the dock and only about 15 feet above the pier. A mom was feeding her baby.

For some reason, the Florida Bay tour seemed to be less popular than the Backwater tour - we were pleased to find that we were the only passengers on the boat. We had a private tour of the Florida Bay!

On the boat tour, we learned that Osprey mate for life, and the males will not even take another mate if his dies (females will - hmmm...). We have seen quite a few Osprey on this trip.

The bay is a large area polka dotted with small islands and abundant fish and birds. In addition to the great views of the bay, the Flamingo Visitor Center perched at water's edge was also visible. A hotel used to be located by the visitor center, but was destroyed in 2005's hurricane Wilma. 

The warm waters of the bay are only about 4 feet deep in most places and are a huge nursery for many species of birds and fish. In addition to Osprey, White and Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns, Ibis, Great Blue Heron, Cormorant, an Eagle and others, we saw a Manatee and a number of Dolphins on the bay. 

Our limited photographic skills and equipment didn't allow us to obtain too many good pics on the bay, but here is one our guide took of some unusual wildlife.

pic of anne and me
The dolphins were exhibiting the behavior of making “mud rings”. This unique behavior is when dolphins swim fast in a circular motion, stirring up mud from the shallow bottom. Fish trapped in the ring try to jump out of it and often become airborne. Then the dolphins scoop them up. In the below photo, you can see three mud rings and a dolphin jumping to catch the fish in the upper right side of the photo.

The guide told us that it was quite unusual to see this behavior, and he might not see it again for another three or four weeks. He also told us that this is the only place in the world where dolphins exhibit this fishing technique.

We took some time to drive from our Flamingo Campground to the town of Homestead, about 60 miles away. We wanted to visit a well known roadside farm stand, Robert is Here, and an Orchid nursery, RB Orchids. Both are best described in pictures.

Here is a picture from the second floor of the visitor center in Flamingo overlooking the bay, and a sign that tells a lot about some of the most ferocious inhabitants of the Everglades.

Although the boat was nearly full, the backwater trip wasn't as interesting for us. Maybe the partly cloudy cooler weather had something to do with it.

We did learn about the Manchineel tree. Merely touching the leaves or bark of the tree can cause your flesh to rot, and ingesting any of it is fatal. Can you see how all the leaves of this one point downward?

We did see another Osprey and a lonesome alligator.

Although it wasn's always sunny, and the temperatures could have been a little higher, we thoroughly enjoyed out time in the Everglades. Vistas such as this one of the seemingly endless sawgrass field will remain with us for a long time to come.

On the morning we were to leave, we took a final walk on a short path at the Eco Pond. We came upon a group of upwards of 200 White Pelicans. They were busy  scooping up small fish in the shallow pond - and looked like a lot of kids bobbing for apples.  

The 9 foot wingspan of these birds qualifies them as the largest bird in the Everglades. 

On the far shore were a number of Roseate Spoobills. With the reddish tinge to their feathers, the underside of their wings was a bright pink when they took to the air. 

As we walked the perimeter of the pond, we listened for a bit to a kayak guide who was telling just how unusual it was to see such a large group of white pelicans. What a great way the Eco Pond walk was to finish up our 4 days at the southern end of Everglades National Park! 

3. Friends, Relatives and Manatees!

Our next stop was at Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, Fl. The Spring is a natural warm spring that bubbles out of the ground at its headwaters and flows for a quarter mile or so into the St. Johns River. The Spring temperature is a constant 72F, and attracts the manatees, who must have these warm temperatures to survive. In fact, more manatees die each year from cold waters than injuries from boat propellers. 

Cooler air temperatures cause a greater number of manatees to seek the warm temperatures of the Spring, and manatee viewing was excellent. Several times this week, the park was closed due to limited parking.

And once we had to wait in a line for 40 minutes just to get back into the park after a trip to town! But the congestion was not hard to bear, considering the excellent manatee viewing. While they might look a little small in the following picture, each adult is in the neighborhood of 1500-2500 lbs.

A daily count of manatees is posted at the park entrance and one day it exceeded 400. Once we counted 40 manatees at one spot along the viewing boardwalk, which runs the full length of the spring.

In the morning when there were few people viewing, you could hear the manatees surfacing, blowing out air and sucking in more  before quickly going under again. Pretty cool.

This guy was eating the moss in an upside down position while holding on with his flippers!

We used our week here to connect with friends nearby. It turned out that the scenic little town of Mt. Dora was roughly equal distance for Don and Sharie, Jimmy and Kay, and us to drive for a meet-up. With many shops and restaurants as well as a lake and scenic boardwalk, Mt. Dora turned out to be the ideal place to meet. 

 We had a nice lunch at The Lost Parrot.

The boys had some time to solve a few of the world's problems while the girls kept the wheels of commerce turning at the Mt. Dora Olive Oil Co. and several other small shops that reminded us of Third St. in Geneva.

The town is on the banks of Lake Dora, and a nice park and quarter mile boardwalk provided great views of the lake and surrounding vegetation and wildlife populations.

We bid farewell to our friends, but were not lonely for long, because some others, Keith and Ruth, drove up from Orlando the next day to visit and see the manatees. 

This fellow in the boat is a park ranger who was taking notes about the manatees. Generally no boating or snorkeling is permitted when the manatees are here in high numbers - in winter.

We took the Park's boat ride, boarding at the mouth of the Blue Spring and going into the St Johns River. Interestingly, the St Johns is the only major river in the Northern Hemisphere to flow north, and the largest river in Florida. We saw some wildlife including many birds, and a few turtles and alligators.

and spotted a unique little camper on the way back to our rig. 

Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse capped another nice day with friends at Blue Springs, and the following day we journeyed back to the coast to Long Point County Park. 

Long Point is an interesting island park in the Intracoastal Waterway that at first view seems to be just a big open space surrounded by water. Almost all sites had a small boat launch, like the one on the right at our site below. The park permits longer term stays (several months), and is ideal for fisherman and winter Floridians.

Our cousin, Chris, and her hub, Ted, are campers too, and we were happy to learn that while we were at Long Point, they would be just a few miles away at Sebastian Inlet State Park! We got together several times and enjoyed an exploration of the island just off Long Point and accessible via a short walking bridge.

Anne found a super sized garden center in the nearby town of Wabasso, and we spent a few hours and a few bucks there. Although the plants there were not too unique, the garden center's grounds were unmatched in our experience. Have a look..... 

We capped off our visit with Chris and Ted with a great dining experience at a coastal restaurant, Cafe Coconut Cove. But, unfortunately, the next day as we prepared to leave Long Point, the bridge going south on A1A was closed for 1 1/2 hours. Fortunately, we stopped before going part way up the bridge, and were able to unhook our car, turn around and go North out of town - about a 1 1/2 hour detour! 

And now we move down the Treasure Coast to Jonathan Dickinson .......