Homestead, FL-Everglades National Forest

We finally made it to south Florida and the Everglades National Park! We entered the park through Homestead, FL and first came to the Coe Visitor Center. We stopped there to check out their exhibits, watch a video and pick up a couple of Junior Ranger packets for the kids to work on during the week.

From the visitor center, it would be another 38 miles before we reached our campground! The Everglades National Park is over 1.5 million acres!

We made it about halfway when we had a blowout :(

It ripped off a fender and damaged the surrounding body. The tread was peeled off of the tire and wrapped around the axle. Greg always checks the tires before we head out and they are only 2 years old!!

Fortunately, it was daylight and Greg was prepared. He had everything we needed. One of the difficulties of the situation was that it was a 2 lane road (one lane in, one lane out) and there was no shoulder and no other level area. We just had to replace the tire where we had come to a stop. Several people stopped to offer help and one nice man found the piece that had flown off and brought it back to us.

We eventually got back on the road and were so thankful that we were able to get it done, that the road was not terribly busy, and it was still daylight (perfect example of why we try to be at our destination long before dark).

On a positive note, Greg was already scheduled to take the next two days off, therefore it allowed him some time to make arrangements for getting new tires, talking to the insurance company and scheduling the repair work on the trailer. What a pain!

So now back to the park...

The tent camping area was so pretty. 

The RV camping area was nice but just wasn't as beautiful. I think it's because it just wasn't as green.

The Flamingo Visitor Center was very close to the campground. Here are some pics from the Guy Bradley trail from the campground to the visitor center:

We rode our bikes to the visitor center daily and went to several of the Ranger talks.  The most interesting talk was on the Burmese Pythons.  Purchased as pets, they were later released into the park by their owners when they were no longer wanted.  These have become a serious problem in the park and they estimate there are tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of them.  Sadly some of the small vertebrae like marsh rabbits, raccoons and rats have disappeared from the park. And because the python mothers protect their eggs at the nest, there are no real predators for them.  At one time, they tried releasing more radio-tagged rabbits back into the habitat but they later found all of the tags inside pythons.  They could then remove the pythons, but that may not be the best trapping method??

The kids enjoyed the exhibits at the visitor's center.  This was Jordan's favorite.

Greg took these awesome pictures of the sunrise from there.

This is also where the kids earned their third Junior Ranger badge.

The park had a lot of activities available including hikes and canoe trips. We went on one hike through the mosquitoes mangroves. We learned about the differences between the black, red and white mangroves.  These in the picture are mostly white but this is an awful picture and certainly does not do the mangroves justice.

At the beginning of the hike, the ranger showed us a crocodile nest near the edge of the road. Jordan is checking out the cracked open eggs.

They also had a marina for all of the boaters. We saw a manatee and there was an osprey nest low enough to see the hatchlings.

BUT despite all of these wonderful things, I have over a million complaints. And each one of them is a MOSQUITO!!! Sadly, it really put a damper on my enjoyment of this park. SOME days it was okay to be outside but others it was bad and you had to douse yourself in DEET and even then you weren't safe. This winter had been wetter than normal and we arrived at the end of the "low mosquito" season.  They told us they don't even charge to tent camp there in the summer because of how miserable it is with the heat and mosquitoes.

A couple of evenings we went out to explore. The first day we went on a walk on the Coastal Prairie Trail. We wore long sleeves and sprayed ourselves heavily. It was a nice walk but then the trail traveled alongside the water. You could not stop moving or you would be carried away. We were nearly running on our way back to the trail head!

Next time, we decided to take a bike ride because as long as we were moving, we would be okay, right? We started out on the Rowdy Bend Trail. Seemed nice enough. The trail started out wide enough to drive a car down, but a couple of minutes into it, it narrowed to about the width of two feet side by side. We could have turned around, I suppose, but I hoped that maybe it would widen again. We pushed on as the roots bounced us wildly and the plants slapped our legs as we rode through. The kids loved the bouncing and roared with laughter.

But as we got more tired, the joy started to fade. There was no stopping to rest because the mosquitoes were blood thirsty! I did stop briefly to spray everyone but then I had to push on. It was a little over 2.5 miles of difficult terrain before we emerged on the boardwalk leading out over the water. Phew! We made it! A little break to catch our breaths and escape the swarms.

We decided that going back that way was really out of the question. Shortly after leaving the boardwalk the trail forked and we veered onto the Snake Bight Trail. It was very wide and headed straight out to the road. It was another 1.8 miles, but fairly easy riding. Then, once we made it out to the road we raced back to the truck, which turned out to be about another 2.7 miles! Jacob was awesome! He kept up the whole way and did not want a break even when we offered him one. Jordan was in the seat on my bike (giving me an extra 35 or so pounds) complaining about how tired she was from doing nothing or something like that. I wish I had a picture of these areas but we just could not stop moving to shoot any!! Maybe I should have had Jordan take video!!

My one last complaint.... The lack of water hookups for the RVs and no hot water at the nearby showers made it just a little more unpleasant. Since we had to put on mosquito repellent everyday, we definitely had to shower at night. So in the dark, we had to load everyone up in the truck and go find another shower in the tent areas that had hot water. AND they just really did not seem clean. I think if we had more convenient access to showers (warm showers) it would have drastically improved the experience.

In any case, I am glad that we went. It really is a beautiful place, that sadly I appreciate more now that I am gone. Greg wants to go back in January of next year, thinking that the mosquitoes won't be as bad. I am not totally sold on it yet. :)

Despite MY frustrations, the kids enjoyed it.  They played so much together.  Jordan decided she was comfortable to ride her bike without any help and together she and Jacob rode around and around collecting weeds, or "wheat" as they would call it, which they would take to their "shredder" (the spare tire mount) and turn into bread.  ;)

They met another Junior Ranger boy from Houston and three children from Sweden.  It was fun to watch my kids and the Swedish kids play together.  It did not matter that they could not even speak the same language!

We ended up leaving a day early so that we could stop in Homestead and get new tires. We decided that the best thing would be to replace all of the tires with a reputable and quality brand. It was all done in a couple of hours and then we headed to the Ft. Lauderdale area. We found a camping spot at Easterlin County Park. The park looked nice but we didn't hang around to check it out much. Instead, we went to the beach!

The beach was fun and we enjoyed watching all of the cruise ships head out to sea.  The water was warm.  Greg and Jacob spotted and chased a flounder around.

The next morning, we headed out to Orlando for our final stop in Florida.