Living the Dream: North side of Everglades NP

We left the southern tip of Everglades NP on Wednesday, February 21, and stayed at Midway campground on the Tamiami Trail, US Hwy. 41. This was a delightful small campground with all campsites paved and facing the small lake. It was still in the Everglades NP so people who have had a respectable number of birthdays camped for $15/night with the National Park Pass.

February 22

We drove back down the road to Shark Valley, another place inside Everglades NP, with a paved bike path down along a canal filled with alligators and water birds. We biked about 10 miles and were able to view several alligators and birds.

Young alligator

Baby Anhinga birds

Night heron

Great Blue heron above and Tricolored heron below

Great Blue heron eating a fish we saw him catch

February 23

We decided to go back and ride our bikes again but a little further this time. We rode ~15 miles down to the end of the loop where there is an observation tower allowing you to see across the Everglades, then back to the visitor center. On the way out to the tower, we saw an alligator inside a culvert pipe apparently waiting for some fish to pass through.

Approaching the tower

From up on the tower

We saw 55 alligators from the tower back to the visitor center.

February 25

We left Midway campground and meandered towards Collier-Seminole State Park. On the way, Bonnie mentioned she needed a post office if we saw one. About ten miles further down the road we not only found a post office, we found the smallest post office in the United States.

That's right, the small white building IS the post office.

We continued on to Everglades City, a small, town with lots of buildings in disrepair. We got tickets to take an air boat ride in the mangrove swamps, an air boat ride in the grass land swamps, and a swamp buggy ride.