Everglades National Park

Fun fact: I have a twin sister.

For our 30th birthday this we decided to go on a trip together. The main criteria was it had to be somewhere warm and somewhere we hadn’t been before. At the end of February, there aren’t many reliably warm places so it didn’t take us long to narrow down our list. Another fun fact: Everglades national park is the country’s third largest park. Neither one of us had been before so Everglades it was!

It was a quick 3 day trip but we covered a lot of ground and had a great time. The park is unique because the vast majority of it is inaccessible. There are only a few roads that lead to look out points and camp sites. Other than that, it’s wetlands and mangrove tree groves for as far as the eye can see. The only way to see those areas is by airboat, and even those can’t get around everywhere.

There are a few short walking trails on the eastern side of the park that offer the chance to see different wildlife up close. In our first hour we saw alligators, reptiles, birds, turtles, and fish. Of all the national parks I have been to, Everglades had the most wildlife.

We have a cousin who lives in Naples, Florida and she was kind enough to show us around her area and take us to a beautiful canal where we kayaked through lush trees and plant life. Then it was off to the air boats and we explored both the mangrove trees and the more open grasslands. This was probably the highlight of the trip and a must do for anyone that visits the park! Oh, and randomly the airboat package included a animal sanctuary where they were rehabilitating a panther, some tigers, and some lions.

By the third day, we felt like we had seen everything we could in the park so we decided to checkout nearby Biscayne National Park while we were in the area. We took a boat out to the coral reefs and snorkeled with the fishes. The sun was shining, the water was warm, and the wind in our faces on the boat was exactly what we needed to get us through the rest of winter.