I was once chatting with an acquaintance who mentioned she was from Florida, and I said, "I love Florida." And she said, with a curl in her lip and disbelief in her voice, "Why?"
Well, the nature, I said. The wildlife. She allowed this (though she hastened to add, "There's certainly no culture there.")
In February I embarked on another trip back to Florida, to see my mom and also the most wildlife I've seen on any trip ever. It was an incredible experience. But before we get to the wildlife, I want to acknowledge some other pleasant and unpleasant realities of Florida:
Working from the pool shortly after I arrived
Beautiful sunsets
Warm evenings
Mom and I had decided that we would finally go visit the Everglades on this trip, and she had booked an airbnb outside the park that was actually a camper. I hadn't stayed in a camper since the pop-up camper my family had had when I was a kid. This one was a bit more upscale, and came with a lovely area for hanging out outside. It was so pleasant and warm I wanted to stay up all night reading.
The camper was also full of ants. This is normal. There are lots of insects in Florida and they haven't learned politeness.
The camper was decorated in what I will cal Live Laugh Love style, with lots of gray wood/faux wood accents, and little signs and knick knacks exhorting us to be in the moment, follow our bliss, etc.
The "Enjoy the little things" pillow in my room made me think, Oh, like ants?
Also, a shock—we woke the next morning to find that despite how warm it had been when I went to bed, it had snowed overnight:
No, I'm kidding. That is just the white gravel outside the camper, but it caused both Mom and I to do a double-take when we woke up. I had forced my poor mother to get up early so that we could go to the Anhinga Trail, which the google had told me was an excellent place to see wildlife. And everyone knows you see more wildlife in the morning and evening.
Well, they were right.
Anhinga drying its wings
Great blue heron
Adorable log
Rat snake?
I could not manage to get this snake in focus
Purple gallinule
I became obsessed with the purple gallinule, which I thought the most beautiful bird I had ever managed to spot "in the wild." (Granted, the wildlife on the Anhinga Trail was not very wild, which allowed some fantastically close-up pics.) Enchantingly, the gallinules walk on lily pads. This just cannot be beat.
The gators came quite close to the trail, too. Obviously one should not approach them. Less obvious is what this sign was trying to convey:
???
While you're being eaten by a gator, a vulture may well be eating your car. Yet I did not see anyone using the provided tarps, possibly because no one else was using them. Social proof in action.
We explored many other areas of this eastern part of the park:
A beautiful tree with Spanish moss
Above is the largest Mahogany tree in the country. I know. You were expecting it to be taller.
As we drove through the Everglades, the car laboring up long inclines, I was reminded of my home of Colorado:
We went back to the camper for dinner, but I had enjoyed the Anhinga trail so much that I returned around sunset to see if the animals were back out.
As dark fell, I joined a ranger leading a night walk. We found an alligator that had been attacked. The white spot in the middle of the photo is a wound on its front leg.
The next day Mom and I made for the Shark Valley area of the Everglades, bringing the electric bikes. This turned out to be the best idea possible. Shark Valley has a 15-mile paved scenic loop, closed to cars. Since both of us have health problems (my plantar fasciitis was still in full effect), the ebikes allowed us to cover all this ground without too much trouble.
Flooded "borrow pits" lined the trail. Since Florida is basically at sea level, and they need to dig up material and pile it to build a road on, pretty much every road is adjacent to what looks like a canal. The borrow pits along the Shark Valley Trail were full of gators, birds, turtles, and tons of fish.
Green heron
Baby gator
View from tower at end of loop
After biking we indulged in the very touristy activity of taking an airboat ride, which turned out to be tons of fun. The guide took us to an area where a gator quickly swam up to the boat. It was very clear that the gator had been fed at some point or was still being fed, for the purpose of making it approach for photos, and this was Bad, and am I supposed to report these people? But the boat ride itself was very fun, as the driver sent it into "skids" around turns again and again. It was like a theme park ride.
That evening, not yet sated, I went back to the Anhinga Trail to try to get more wildlife photos.
Red-bellied cooter?
Cormorant
Green heron
Purple gallinule
Yellow sunset
Red-bellied cooters?
So. We had realized at some point that there was also a Biscayne National Park nearby. And I had mentioned to Mom that I needed to get stickers for my guitar case from all the national parks I visited, so she decided we had to go to Biscayne too just so I could get a sticker. It turned out to be beautiful and made me regret we only had about an hour there, since we planned to visit Key West that day.
Lovely, Caribbean-like waters
Invasive common agama
After walking the pretty paths around the Biscayne visitor center, we began our long journey to Key West, stopping at Curry Hammock State Park to make some lunch. I like the various lines in the below photo, of an unidentified curly-tailed lizard I spotted there.
When we finally reached Key West, we went to take our pictures at the southernmost point of the contiguous US, but there was a huge line so we said "screw it" and I snapped this photo through the car window.
Duval Street
Well, Key West was not as I had imagined. It was very upscale and looked like somewhere you could get a new Gucci bag and $15 martini.
Thankfully we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park on the way back so I could stretch my legs, and get a proper dose of dirt and views.
Then to Island Fish Co. on Marathon Key, which I am happy to recommend, as they not only had very good dead fish but some live ones would come to a little station where you could insert money to get food for them. I did not do this but they came up anyway.
Parrotfish
On our final day, I got up way too early again to get to the Anhinga Trail for sunrise. I didn't get any great wildlife photos this time, or at least not better than I'd gotten before, but did take some cool sunrise shots in the mist:
We loaded up and said goodbye to our anty camper. Partway through the drive back home, we stopped at Gulf Coast portion of the Everglades where Mom had reserved a canoe for us to do some water exploration. Unfortunately the rental company seemed to have forgotten this. But after standing peevishly in the hot sun for half an hour, finally we were out paddling past small mangrove islands through muddy bay water, watching for birds and dolphins.
Pelicans in a tree
We did in fact see the fin of a swimming dolphin, and when we found a little beach on a little island to pull up at, Mom saw a stingray and some kind of live conch or snail.
It was a very fun two hours and I think if I were healthier it would have been nice to make a whole day of it, with lots of food and water of course.
I was sad (!) to return back to Regular Florida, because Everglades Florida and my vacation-within-a-vacation had been so amazing, but this evening sighting on a trail near her house perked me up:
Can you spot the creature in the pic above? You can click for a blown-up view, and then (if you like) right-click or control-click to open in a new tab for an even more blown-up view.
Have you found it yet? It became much easier to see when it decided I wasn't a threat and went to cross the trail. Scroll down to see:
A bobcat! I have never had such a good look at one.
Everyone I showed this photo to asked, "Were you afraid?" No. They're not that much bigger than domestic cats. And it was clearly afraid of me. One of my coolest wildlife sightings ever. I wish it had stuck around a little longer.
So. Though I was no longer in the Everglades, there were still plenty of animals to see.
A wood stork in a lake by a development, with late afternoon sun behind it
On one of my last days we went to visit Myakka River State Park, where I have been several times and which is also a pretty mind-blowing place for wildlife. We took the ebikes again, and rode up and down the park road stopping for photos.
Ominous vultures
Pelican and roseate spoonbills
This was the best look at spoonbills I have ever had. There was another group in the distance and they were jumping around and doing who knows what.
Many gators
Great blue heron
Sandhill cranes
Young gator
No danger here
Red-shouldered hawk
I don't recall if it was this hawk above or another one, but one flew just a foot over Mom's head while we were biking and she didn't even see it. This hawk, in any case, had swooped down either with or to some animal which it then proceeded to peck at until a car zoomed by and scared it off.
Back "home" from the park, I did just a little more nature-viewing before I'd have to fly back to snowy Denver.
Yellow-crowned night heron
Brown anole
Pink sunset
What pain, to have to return! But you can't spend too long on a vacation, or it turns from a vacation into the everyday. I hope I'll be back soon.
