Contact Information
4000l State Road 9336
Homestead, FL 33034
305-242-7700
The landscape of Everglades National Park is utterly unique among American vistas. A patchwork of overwhelmingly open saw grass marshes, tangled mangrove forests, and jungle-like tropical hardwood hammocks, it's called the River of Grass. Indeed, most of the park's 1.5 million acres are either fresh or brackish water wetlands, or are submerged beneath the shallow estuarine waters of Florida Bay. With no place more than eight feet above sea level, even the few hummocks of pineland or hardwood uplands succumb to the dominating force of water during high water events.This is the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States, and it's home to a veritable zoo of endangered, rare, and exotic species. The Everglades' simple, uncluttered vistas highlight wildlife's presence. Against the muted green and brown tones of the freshwater prairies, you can't miss the bright whites of great egrets and white ibis. Discordant ripples in the saw grass signal the movement of alligators. Mix a spectacularly rich, diverse ecosystem with all that water, and it's no surprise that the truest way to get at the soul of the Everglades is by picking up a paddle. In wintertime, when the temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes abate somewhat, the park draws large numbers of kayak and canoe campers, along with birders, hikers, anglers, and plenty of car-bound curiosity-seekers with alligators on the brain.
|
|
|
