Everglades
National Park - Homestead, FL
Pictures & a video clip from a visit to
the Everglades National Park located in Homestead, Miami-Dade county, Florida.
 Everglades Park Map |
 Main Park Road Trail |
 Tamiami Trail Map |
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The Everglades National Park was established in 1947 and covers about 1.5 million acres of Florida's southwestern tip. Most of the park is covered by a freshwater river with cattails, mangrove trees, bulrush and other marsh vegetation. Some of the recreation options available at the Everglades National Park include hiking trails, fishing, boating, camping, wildlife viewing, boat tours, kayaking, canoeing, bicycling, and tram tours. We entered the park via the city of Homestead in Miami-Dade county and visited the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center to pick up a map. After that, we paid the $10 per vehicle entrance fee and went to the Royal Palm section of the park to walk the Anhinga & Gumbo Limbo Trails. We finished our visit at the Pa-hay-okee Overlook, which is 10 miles further west. |
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 Visitors Center Entrance |
 Gumbo Limbo Trail |
 Anhinga Trail |
| One of the top reasons to visit the Everglades National Park is to observe or photograph the variety of animals that reside on the grounds. Just a few of the species that live here include American Alligators, Florida Panthers, manatees, wood storks, ibis, zebra butterflies, barred owls, white-tailed deer, great white herons, American crocodiles, logger-head turtles, pink shrimp, mangrove snapper, coon oysters, osprey, brown pelicans, blue crabs, southern bald eagles, roseate (pink) spoonbill, black vultures, bluegill fish, crayfish, Florida gar, largemouth bass, and purple gallinules, . | ||
 Eastern Lubber Grasshopper |
 Orange/Yellow Grasshopper |
 Giant Orange Grasshopper |
| All of the animals in the Everglades National Park live among 100's of plant species such as saw grass, red mangroves, turtle grass, strap fern, strangler fig, royal palm, orchids, slash pines, air plants, gumbo limbo trees, and swamp lilies. | ||
 Alligator Swimming |
 American Alligator |
 Gator Head Above Water |
| My favorite part about visiting the Everglades National Park is walking along the elevated boardwalks and watching the American Alligators. Their activity level depends on the time of day and the weather. We were lucky enough to see a few gators swimming through the water and several others basking in the sun. On a really hot day, you'll notice the alligators resting with their mouths open. This allows the breeze to flow along their tongue helping to cool their bodies. | ||
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| Our visit covered just a tiny bit of the southeastern area of the Everglades National Park. Just a few of the other locations are Long Pine Key, West Lake, Nine Mile Pond, Mahogany Hammock, Noble Hammock, Shark Valley Visitor Center, Flamingo Visitor Center, Cape Sable, Paurotis Pond, Chekika, and Ten Thousand Islands. | ||
 The Slough Info Guide |
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 Alligator Osteoderms |
| The Everglades National Park is composed of distinct regions such as marine, estuarine, coastal marsh, cypress, coastal prairie, freshwater slough, pineland, freshwater marl prairie, and hardwood hammock. | ||
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 Pond Apple / Alligator Apple |
 Ripe Green Pond Apple |
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 Gator With Mouth Open |
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 Basking In The Sun |
 Alligator Teeth Close Up |
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 Water Level Gauge |
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 Unwanted Exotic Fish Species |
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 Restrooms & Gift Shop |
 Hurricane Andrew Impact |
 Gumbo Limbo Trail |
 Paved Path Through Forest |
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 Strangler Fig Sign |
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 Parking Lot |
 Bird Perched In Tree |
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 Swarm of Birds In Sky |
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 Alligator Eye Close Up |
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 Elevated Boardwalk |
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 Tricolor Heron |
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 Green Heron |
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 Pa-hay-okee Overlook |
 River of Grass |
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 Sun Bleached Boardwalk |
 Driving Through Park |
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| During our visit, I recorded a few short video clips with my Canon S5 IS digital camera. I edited the clips into a short movie that is encoded in the Windows Media (WMV) format, runs about a minute long and has a file size of 17 MB. To view the video, click on the link below. To download the movie, right click and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As". | ||
 Visitor Center / Park HQ |
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 Panther Crossing Sign |
| For more, please visit my other related photo galleries by clicking on the following links: CocoWalk Shopping Center, Fairchild Chocolate Festival, Miami MetroZoo, Miami City Tour, South Florida International Auto Show, Flamingo Gardens, South Beach, Fairchild International Mango Festival, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, and the Everglades Holiday Park. | ||