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Published: March 31st 2017
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The Alligator Pond10,000 Islands Tour,Everglades National Park,
Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park,
Everglades City, Florida
Yesterday was the exact opposite of the day before and we were ready for it. We explored two of the four eco regions that make up the Southern Florida Coastal Plain - the ecologists term for what we know as The Everglades. Our trips survey wide areas, but, if there is a core to this trip, then it is here. Joan picked the south largely because she wanted to see this part of the world and, especially, to see an alligator, or two.
We accomplished that, and a lot more, yesterday as we headed east out of our state park campground just a few miles. As we were driving we could tell we had entered a different world. Vegetation was lush and so different. And, after about 20 miles, we turned south onto a local road that took us down to a quaint little town, Everglades City. This is a town literally built on stilts. All the homes are at least two stories but the bottom floor is obviously not used for much except as an entry and exit. Cars are parked
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Bonsai Tree there, but so are boats. It seems that they are very ready for flooding that might easily overwhelm the bottom 10 feet of the structure. It sort of reminded me of a New England fishing town, although without the real estate values. There was a house for sale with a price of $14,000. This was Everglades City.
Once we got to the end of the road, we located the Gulf Coast Visitor Center for Everglades National Park. We browsed the gift shop and picked up our tickets for the 10,000 Island Boat Tour. The tour is one of two available from this location, the other one being a more intimate tour of the mangrove forests in a smaller boat. (It was also more expensive and we couldn't quite see our way to two boat tours in one day.). So we stuck to our original decision and took the larger boat, a catamaran designed for maybe thirty passengers, and headed out with Captain Mike and deckhand Valerie. There were only nine of us, plus a dog who seemed scared to death and didn't move the entire trip.
They say that there are 10,000 islands that dot the coastal areas
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Gulf Coast Visitor Center of the park running down from this corner all the way down to the Florida tip. I suspect, however, that, like Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, no-one has ever actually counted them. Captain Mike said there might be as many as 16,000, but I don't think he has counted them either.
Let's just say there is a multitude. They are formed when mangrove trees are able to grab some sand and hold it together long enough to build an island. It is the mangrove trees that make this ecological zone and this boat trip is designed, in part, to teach about these islands. You don't ever disembark and spend time on one of these islands. One might be able to do that with a canoe, but it would be a tough exercise. These trees are densely packed together and their root system is mostly above the ground making passage rough.
The mangrove is one of the few trees that can survive in salty water and they do that pretty much by avoiding it altogether. The roots are designed to stick up out of the salt water and breathe the air, so they create knees that end up lifting the entire
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Coastal Island Vegetation tree up and out of the water. They then provide a habitat for an entire ecosystem consisting of raccoons, a snake, and hundreds of varieties of insects including 40 known species of mosquitoes. So even if you could take a boat up to one of these islands, you might not want to spend much time on one.
Mangrove leaves, dying off the trees, end up falling into the water where they decay and become the basis for an entirely different ecosystem in the estuaries surrounding these islands. Oysters, barnacles, shrimp, and crabs can be found here along with larger animals such as manatees and dolphins.
We didn't see any manatees on this trip - that was one of the advertised attractions of the other boat trip, but we did see dolphins. At one point Captain Mike tried to get them to play in the wake of the boat, but they just weren't interested. We did see them breach the water several times for us, but capturing a moving animal in a picture is a difficult task.
We traveled through the islands and nearly into Gulf waters for an hour and a half before returning to the dock.
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Osprey Nest It was a good trip, but next time we'll take the smaller boat trip. We stopped at the visitor center and were advised on some other good sites to explore. And, as I usually do, I bought a textbook on the ecology of the area. Haven't finished my Southeastern Indian book yet, but since we are now in the Everglades, I'll read this one.
Hot and sticky, we climbed back into the air-conditioned car and headed back to the campground for lunch. But, listening to the ranger at the visitor center, we decided to stop at the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. Although not technically part of the Big Cypress National Preserve, it is part of the Big Cypress ecological zone. And we were very glad we made the stop.
There is a half-mile long boardwalk, elevated above the swamp, that takes you to an amazing little area where you can sit and ponder just what is going on here. It is a small bowl carved out of the earth by large alligators. The bowl is half full of water that is a murky green from all the algae. In the water
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Mangrove Roots are two very good size alligators who move every now and then but seem, mostly, to just be keeping cool. The muck surrounding the water is nearly black as it oozes a gooey mud. On a decaying log is a snowy white egret looking for food. On another log is a totally black snake just sunning himself. (I have no idea what it is, although someone who apparently studies this stuff a lot thought it could have been a cottonmouth, or possibly, just a black snake.)
Surrounding all of this is a dense jungle of tangled brown and green plants. All shapes and sizes, the jungle of leaves and plant life is just buzzing with insects. Epiphytes ('air plants' that have no roots into the soil) are lodged in nooks and crevices of big cypress, palm, and a few hardwood trees. There is an exotic beauty to this scene, although it is not one I want to join. You do wonder, at times, whether the boardwalk is high enough to keep you safe!
The walk down the boardwalk is complete with interpretive signs helping you to identify all the wonderfully different plants that make up this swamp. And,
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More Mangrove Roots before you even get to the boardwalk, you skirt a swampy ravine with multiple alligators and birds. There is even a section with young alligators, just a few feet long. Warning to the faint of heart - there is nothing keeping these alligators in that ravine and, with enough provocation, I suspect they could climb the banks fairly easy and give you a startling experience right on the path.
I suspect we will be seeing more wildlife like that, but this was a vivid introduction to the Everglades. In just a few hours we explored the salt water estuaries, the mangrove-forested islands, and a full-on swamp. I asked Joan if she was satisfied now and whether it was time to go home! She said 'Not on Your Life!'
So we shall see what today brings! (17.1.23)
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