We pulled into Everglades National Park on Christmas Eve, with just enough time before sunset to walk around the Long Pine Key Campground and make all sorts of great plans for the two full days we had planned in the park. However, the weather gods had other plans, and Christmas Day dawned, sort of, but not really with what we had planned for south Florida. The entire day was in the 50s, pissing down rain for most of the day, and basically utterly miserable. We ventured out a few times to walk the dogs around the campground, but only for a mile or so at a time before retreating to the camper to get warm and dry. The day wasn’t a total loss; the ever-efficient Tom finished a project he’d been working on for a while, and we now have a charging shelf in the hall closet so we don’t have to shuffle cords from the bed to the counter and back every morning and evening, and they’re not in a constantly tangled mess, visibly, at least. The nasty weather was also a good excuse to take advantage of the good AT&T reception at the campground, and we were able to watch Christmas specials on TV as I was making dinner.
Ty doesn’t think quite as much of The Grinch as Tom does.
Unfortunately, the next day wasn’t a whole lot nicer. We managed to get the dogs out for a longer walk, and we managed to get out for an even longer walk on the Long Pine Keys Trail, but after an hour or so out in the cold and damp, we retreated to the camper and I made tea or figured out something to cook that required turning on the oven.
The Long Pine Keys Trail is about five miles, and basically circles the campground. It goes through a number of different environments, and despite the damp and gray weather was a good Boxing Day hike.
After spending the two days we had planned to spend in the park mostly trying to stay warm, we decided to book another two nights in the park so we could do some of the things we had planned to do when the weather cleared. The campground is exceedingly well run, so when I asked for two more nights, they asked if we minded moving, which, of course, we didn’t, and two more nights were easy to book. We then spent our next two days doing what we had planned to do for Christmas Day and Boxing Day
For the first day, we drove down to Flamingo. Flamingo is the southern-most point of the mainland part of the park, and also has a campground and a marina. They specialize in water activities, but just walking around the area allowed us to see a lot of birds, like this osprey, as well as a number of different habitats. 
Flamingo is right on the ocean, so walking around the edge of the park means walking around different sorts of beach front.
On the way back, we stopped at a trailhead for a boardwalk trail which ran through the mangroves to a lagoon.
The next day, we decided to get our new e-bikes out and take a ride. First, I have to say, I love my new e-bike. With my shit knees, I haven’t really been able to comfortably ride a bike for fifteen or 20 years. I’m perfectly capable of riding the bike, but the recovery period made it not really worth it. The e-bike takes just enough pressure off my knees that I can cruise along, and actually sleep that night and walk without limping the next day. I hate to admit it, but we got e-bikes that are marketed to “older” people, and they’re absolutely perfect.
Anyway, we looked at maps and talked to the rangers, and decided to ride out the back side of the campground and head for the Old Ingraham Highway. The whole ride ended up being about 25 miles, partially on roads, and partially on very clear trails. We went towards the Nike Missile Site, which didn’t really offer much to see, then we went down the Old Ingraham Highway, which is closed to vehicles but open to hikers and bikers. We pedaled nonchalantly along, until Tom heard a big splash on the side of the trail. We stopped and were looking in the water at the side of the trail, not seeing anything, until I looked about 20 yards ahead and saw a very large - probably 8 feet or a little more - alligator sunning itself right beside the trail. We took photos, but then weren’t sure if it was safe to pedal by, but then we saw a truck maybe 400 yards up the track, so we decided to wait and ask somebody who obviously knew what they were doing.
Anyway, we looked at maps and talked to the rangers, and decided to ride out the back side of the campground and head for the Old Ingraham Highway. The whole ride ended up being about 25 miles, partially on roads, and partially on very clear trails. We went towards the Nike Missile Site, which didn’t really offer much to see, then we went down the Old Ingraham Highway, which is closed to vehicles but open to hikers and bikers. We pedaled nonchalantly along, until Tom heard a big splash on the side of the trail. We stopped and were looking in the water at the side of the trail, not seeing anything, until I looked about 20 yards ahead and saw a very large - probably 8 feet or a little more - alligator sunning itself right beside the trail. We took photos, but then weren’t sure if it was safe to pedal by, but then we saw a truck maybe 400 yards up the track, so we decided to wait and ask somebody who obviously knew what they were doing.
Would you pedal by that?
Finally, after lots of opening and closing of doors and running around, whoever was in the truck got in, shut the doors, and headed in our direction. As he passed the 'gator on the edge of the path, it flipped itself back into the water. We waved the guy down to ask if it was safe for us to pedal past alligators on the trail side. He said it was, and told us to just go to the edge around them, and they would stay out of our way. He then asked us if we had seen what he was doing up the road. We had to honestly answer that we hadn't, so he explained to us that he was a paid-by-the-state python hunter, and he had just grabbed a python by the tail as it was trying to escape into the bush. We were sort of sad that we'd been too chicken to pedal past the alligator, because if we'd done that we would have been able to watch the real-life python hunter, but in the end we had to just ask a bunch of questions and get a bunch of advice, wish him luck in his python hunting, and continue on our way. We went another few miles, saw a few more gators - but no pythons - and finally turned around after carting our bikes through a few mud patches which didn't appear to be ending anytime soon.
We decided to bike back to the Royal Palms Hammock, site of the Anhinga Trail, so we could hike the trail before heading back to camp. We had our picnic lunch in the parking lot, and then hiked the trail, which did not disappoint. It's a very well traveled trail with lots of tourists, but it's laid out so the animals don't avoid it, and we saw lots of birds, a few fish, as well as three alligators sunning themselves well within photographing distance.
We rode back to the campsite, loaded our bikes back into the camper, and prepared to head out the next morning.
Our plan was to leave the campsite, stop at a market some camper neighbors at John Pennekamp State Park had recommended, do some grocery shopping, and head towards the Shark Valley trail for a bike ride to the observation tower before heading to our next campsite at Monument Lake in the Big Cypress National Preserve. The day didn't quite go as planned, but it was close enough and turned out to be a good day.
The market, Robert Is Here, far exceeded expectations. It's the first market we've been to since we left Mexico that actually felt like a farmers' market. The prices were, of course, far (far, far, far, far) higher than in Belize or Mexico, but the choice and quality of the produce made us a little homesick. We bought all of the produce we'd intended to buy at the grocery store, as well as a half gallon of honey, as well as the recommended key lime milkshake for me and strawberry-mango-pineapple liquado for Tom. We also wandered the petting zoo, which, while I generally hate those things, wasn't too bad. The animals all seemed happy enough, and even the house full of parrots seemed to be full of healthy, happy birds.
Our plan was to leave the campsite, stop at a market some camper neighbors at John Pennekamp State Park had recommended, do some grocery shopping, and head towards the Shark Valley trail for a bike ride to the observation tower before heading to our next campsite at Monument Lake in the Big Cypress National Preserve. The day didn't quite go as planned, but it was close enough and turned out to be a good day.
The market, Robert Is Here, far exceeded expectations. It's the first market we've been to since we left Mexico that actually felt like a farmers' market. The prices were, of course, far (far, far, far, far) higher than in Belize or Mexico, but the choice and quality of the produce made us a little homesick. We bought all of the produce we'd intended to buy at the grocery store, as well as a half gallon of honey, as well as the recommended key lime milkshake for me and strawberry-mango-pineapple liquado for Tom. We also wandered the petting zoo, which, while I generally hate those things, wasn't too bad. The animals all seemed happy enough, and even the house full of parrots seemed to be full of healthy, happy birds.
We stopped at a grocery store in Homestead to finigh our shopping, and then headed towards Shark Valley with the plan of doing the fifteen mile paved bike trail to the observation tower and back. We were a little surprised when we found, on a Thursday, that not only was the Shark Valley Visitor Center parking lot full, but that there were cars lined up on both sides of the road for at least a quarter mile before and after the entrance to the visitors' center. Needless to say, we took a pass. We may go back tomorrow morning or Saturday morning if the weather is good and we can get moving early, but if not we'll have to reconcile ourselves to missing biking on a path that was, today, undoubtedly like biking on I95 at rush hour.
Since we couldn't stop at Shark Valley, we decided to head towards the Ochopee Post Office, the smallest post office in the United States. It had been recommended by a friend who lives in the area, and it didn't disappoint. A few cars were there, but we were able to walk directly to the window, buy a few postcards to send to friends who had requested them, take a few pictures, and head towards our campsite.
Since we couldn't stop at Shark Valley, we decided to head towards the Ochopee Post Office, the smallest post office in the United States. It had been recommended by a friend who lives in the area, and it didn't disappoint. A few cars were there, but we were able to walk directly to the window, buy a few postcards to send to friends who had requested them, take a few pictures, and head towards our campsite.
The Monument Lake Campground where we are now staying is nothing like the Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades NP. This campground is more like a county park campground, with pull-in campsites around a small and seemingly manmade lake. It's not bad, it just doesn't feel like anything remotely related to wilderness. Also, as we drove along the Tamiami Trail/Rt.41, I was looking out the window at the many (many, many, many) alligators sunning themselves on the banks of the canal that runs parallel to the highway. For all the alligators we didn't see in the Everglades, we're making up for it now. It's great as far as wildlife viewing goes, but not so great as far as my peace of mind for taking care of our dogs. The campground welcomes dogs, but has lots of signs saying where they should and shouldn't be walked, and just across the [very narrow] road from our campsite is a roped off area by the lake with instructions to not feed the alligators. I don't think I'm super paranoid, but the dogs are going to be walked on very short leashes very close to the camper tonight, and all three nights we are here. That said, the campground is very quiet and nicely set in the middle of a few different ecosystems. Tomorrow we are planning to ride our bikes as far as we're comfortable going on the Loop Road, to see what we can see.
When we're done here, we're heading to the west coast of Florida, then north, then west.