Starting mileage: 2026 Starting time: 8:00 pm
Ending mileage: 2309 Ending time: 4:00 pm
Travel mileage: 283
We left Key West fairly early to start our trek back to Woodstock.
We stopped at the northern entrance to the Everglades park at Shark Valley where we had lunch before going on a short boardwalk through the mangroves. We decided not to take the narrated trolley tour as the birds are mostly gone by afternoon and we had already seen enough alligators which are usually seen sleeping in the afternoon.
Just one or two feet change in elevation can make the difference between a sawgrass marsh and hammock of pine, gumbo-limbo and palm trees. The clusters of trees look like islands in a sea of sawgrass.
We took a short foray into the Big Cypress National Preserve which is next to the Everglades. While the Everglades are mainly fed by water that drains down from Lake Okeechobee and above, Big Cypress is dependent largely on rainfall that it receives directly. The ecology is quite different as it is mostly cypress in standing water. It is also the home of the Florida panther which is quite elusive. We went through a number of charred areas which had recent fires but were now starting to come back.
We are staying in Fort Myers tonight.
We left Key West fairly early to start our trek back to Woodstock.
We stopped at the northern entrance to the Everglades park at Shark Valley where we had lunch before going on a short boardwalk through the mangroves. We decided not to take the narrated trolley tour as the birds are mostly gone by afternoon and we had already seen enough alligators which are usually seen sleeping in the afternoon.
Just one or two feet change in elevation can make the difference between a sawgrass marsh and hammock of pine, gumbo-limbo and palm trees. The clusters of trees look like islands in a sea of sawgrass.
We took a short foray into the Big Cypress National Preserve which is next to the Everglades. While the Everglades are mainly fed by water that drains down from Lake Okeechobee and above, Big Cypress is dependent largely on rainfall that it receives directly. The ecology is quite different as it is mostly cypress in standing water. It is also the home of the Florida panther which is quite elusive. We went through a number of charred areas which had recent fires but were now starting to come back.
We are staying in Fort Myers tonight.
Day 11 route
Boardwalk through the mangroves at Shark Valley visitor center
Cypress swamp
Palm recovering from fire
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