Apr 11, 2013 - Shark Valley still has wildlife

I just had to visit Shark Valley and Laurie at work on my way back to Carefree. While there weren't as many visitors as in the middle of winter, there were still many birds and alligators to be seen within 1/2 mile of the visitor center! Lots of anhingas are nesting and raising young; a red-shouldered hawk is raising a baby in the palm tree right above the visitor center; green herons are also nesting; and let's not forget it is getting to be alligator mating season!

Feb 7, 2013 - Turner River Canoe Trip, FL - 2013

My favorite day of our entire adventure. What I thought would be a nice 30 to 60 minute paddle and then ranger talk was in fact 5 hours of fantastic paddling and talk on the water! Also my first time ever paddling a canoe. This was a ranger led canoe paddle along the upper end of the Turner River in the Big Cypress National Preserve. The canoes, paddles, life vests and 2 rangers were provided free. We traversed 2 fabulous very dense mangrove tunnels. In fact, one was so very low, we passed through the mangrove tunnel hand over hand to get...

Feb 7, 2013 - Big Cypress National Preserve, FL - 2013

The Big Cypress National Preserve is some 720,000 acres of cypress, mangrove, prairie and river grass (not swamp) snuggling up to the Everglades National Park and the Ten Thousand Lakes area. Orchids, bromeliads, birds, alligators, venomous snakes, the Florida Panther and the Florida Black Bear are all residents of this fabulous place. During our nine day stay, we hiked some, canoed some, attended ranger programs, visited Marco Island to have lunch with friends, explored some vehicle trails to see more birds and took an airboat ride. I...

Feb 7, 2013 - Marco Island, FL - 2013

Someone suggested we be sure to visit Marco Island which is between Big Cypress and Naples. It is where "all the money is". It has a lot of nice yachts, condo's, expensive homes, nice white beaches. Marco Island is the largest of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands, located on the Gulf of Mexico in Southwest Florida. It has been described as magical, mystical and alluring. We met up with friends Jo & Fred for lunch. They are staying at park about an hour away. We love crossing their path and our get-togethers. Lunch today was at a #1 rated...

Feb 5, 2013 - Big Cypress walk

I love to travel the Tamiami Trail (US 41) between Miami and Naples because there are so many birds in the trees and gators along the canal that runs next to the road for almost 80 miles. I have stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center almost every time to look over the boardwalk at the gators, fish, and birds. today, I stopped at the Kirby Storter wayside and walked the mile long boardwalk trail through the cypress forest. I noticed the water level is quite low, so I could see the base of many of the trees. Bromeliads were in bloom and one can...

Dec 26, 2012 - Kayaking on the Turner River

After getting back home, I immediately loaded the kayak on the car in preparation for a 1.7 hour ride back towards Miami to the Turner River access point in order to go on a kayak/canoe trip led by a park ranger. The ranger of the day was a woman who spends her days off here at Carefree and I met her last month. Marcie led us up the river a little ways so we could see a few alligators and birds. She gave us a history of the river, who discovered it, and how it was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then we went down river for a few...

Feb 3, 2012 - Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum

This museum, meaning "A Place to Learn, A Place to Remember" is on the Seminole Reservation in the Big Cypress Preserve, but has a mailing address of Clewiston. Clewiston is on the southern end of Lake Okeechobee and we didn't go that far north. I had passed the sign for the museum every time I crossed the state on I-75 but never remembered to look it up to find out if it was a good place to visit. Laurie had been there with co-workers and wanted to take Jeanne and me to go see it. On the road from I-75 to the reservation, we saw alligators...

Nov 16, 2011 - Turner River turns one over!

A few couples took their RVs to Collier-Seminole State Park for a week and sent me an invitation to kayak with them on a river that goes through mangroves and has lots of wild things to find. 4 of us staying in Carefree went down and met them for the trip. I believe there were 11 kayaks in all at the start of it. The water is higher than normal, so some of the going through the mangroves was challenging. We had to do a limbo crawl under a bridge, too! Halfway through our trip, a seasoned kayaker overturned her kayak and ended up in the...

Dec 22, 2010 - Alligators & Birds, Birds & Alligators

Wishing we could stay longer, we left the Florida Keys. We enjoyed our short time and will come back in a couple of years. The next stop on our Florida tour is the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Everglades National Park. There are several campgrounds within the preserve, but these are on a first come first serve basis. To our delight, we were able to get a site at the Midway Campground in Big Cypress. In fact, the campground was nearly empty. This campground offers electric only (50 amp!), a black tank dump, generously spaced,...

Nov 28, 2010 - Enjoying the Everglades

We left the Keys on November 28, and we plan to spend a few weeks in Central Florida before returning home to Georgia for Christmas. So on our way up from The Keys, we spent one night at Midway Campground which is located in the Everglades. It is a really nice park, but it only has electric, so it’s not a good place to stay for a long period of time, but it's a great place from which to explore the Everglades. All along Route 41 from Homestead is the Tamiami Canal, and it is filled with alligators and water fowl. When I spotted my first...

Jan 27, 2010 - Everglades National Park

Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park January 26, 2010 After a week there, we pulled out of Shady Acres RV Park in Ft. Myers. A little over an hour later, we pulled into the Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve. It’s a really nice little thirty-site campground. For $10 with electrical hook-up, yet! The campground host, upon checking in, warned us to look underneath our RV first thing in the morning. Seems there have been episodes of alligators lurking there. He suggested that I check before taking our...