You'll pass through coastal marshes, swamps and other environments before arriving at a saltwater habitat with crocodiles. Coe Visitor Center (just outside the main gate) to the Flamingo Visitor Center. You can ride a bicycle or take a tram tour.”īeyond the South Entrance (40 miles southwest of Miami), the main entrance, you'll see a mix of everything over the course of a 38-mile drive southwest from the Ernest F. This section is particularly suitable for visitors of varied mobility levels, says park ranger Rudy Beotegui, “because it offers different ways to recreate. The Gulf Coast Entrance (36 miles southeast of Naples) leads to saltwater environments, while the Shark Valley Entrance (41 miles west of Miami, 62 miles southwest of Fort Lauderdale) puts you in freshwater ecosystems. The park has three main entrances (with five wheelchair-accessible visitors centers - the South Entrance has three of them) accessed from the Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Naples areas, and beyond each entrance await experiences unique to that particular park section. Given ENP's large size, planning a visit requires some research. Set off for days into the backcountry on a guided kayak tour pedal a bike along a flat, paved road or simply stroll an elevated boardwalk, coming within feet of sunbathing alligators and wading birds. The best part about visiting: You can be as adventurous or low key as you like. Those include the mismanagement of water flow caused by dams and canals related to agriculture and the arrival of voracious Burmese pythons. "The Everglades is a lot more welcoming - and even benign - than many visitors expect,” Gantt says.īut it's impossible to talk about this subtropical wilderness without discussing its fragility - and visitors who engage with the knowledgeable park rangers learn about the many environmental concerns and invasive species threatening it. "This is one of the more iconic national parks,” says Allyson Gantt, an ENP spokesperson, who adds that “while vast expanses of the park are difficult to reach, plenty of places are easily accessible to the average visitor.” Because the park is in Florida, it draws a large number of older people living in the state seasonally or year-round. Boardwalks, hiking paths, kayak routes and boat excursions guide ENP's 1 million annual visitors into varied habitats, from coastal marshes and hardwood hammocks to cypress swamps and low-lying watery bastions called sloughs. And the terrain is as diverse as the park's species. Here, within 1.5 million acres of protected habitat known as the River of Grass - a name given to the area by conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her 1947 book, The Everglades: River of Grass - is a fragile ecosystem that's home not just to gators and crocs, but also to such diverse and endangered animals as the Florida black bear, Florida panther and West Indian manatee. instead of Australia's rugged Northern Territory, it's safe to say this park would have made the ideal backdrop: The Everglades also happen to be the only place in the U.S. If the 1980s blockbuster Crocodile Dundee had been filmed in the U.S. A largely impenetrable web of wetlands and forest that make up Everglades National Park, the country's largest subtropical wilderness, dominates the Sunshine State's southern tip. En español | If you think Florida is just sandy beaches and sprawling development, you've missed a big part of the picture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |