Today’s weather was close to perfect. The temperature got into the mid eighties under a bright sun. A nice breeze off the ocean kept things comfortable.
The bird blends in well with the dead tree branches.
My day was very routine. I took my time over my breakfast coffee this morning. Basically, I squandered the morning away. My first walk of the day didn’t start until about the noon hour. This walk to the marina and back with a few detours is over four miles. Since it is a weekend there are a lot more people in the park today. Places that were quiet during the week had people exploring or otherwise disturbing the quiet. Even the marina seemed to have a few boats tied up at the docks that were empty all week.
Before my second walk of the day I took time to prepare and eat lunch and complete a few tasks around my RV home. There seemed to be even more people in the camping and beach day use areas of the park just before sunset. The marina, however, was back to its empty state.
It started to rain in the middle of the night. I had to scramble to get the windows closed, but went right back to sleep despite the noise on the roof. This morning it was a cloudy and dreary day. On the positive side, it was much cooler. There was a short period in the early afternoon that the sun was visible, but later in the day the clouds were back in force. After being humid and near 90 degrees yesterday, today was in the upper seventies.
Eco Pond
During the early afternoon break in the gloom, I took my first walk of the day. Today’s destination was a return to the Eco Pond trail. I’ve waked the half mile loop around Eco Pond several times during my stay. On all the previous walks I didn’t see any wildlife of interest in or around the pond. Today was the exception. Swimming out in the middle of the pond was a large white bird. With the help of the camera zoom, I was able to identify the bird as a White Pelican. These birds are one of the original snow birds. They are not year round residents of Florida like their Brown Pelican cousins. These birds migrate in from the north for the winter. They are much bigger than the brown variety and do not dive for fish from altitude. They are an impressive bird.
I returned to my campsite via the area reserved for the Eco Rental tents. The tents are busy every night. I took advantage of the time between checkout and check in to get a closer look. They are rigid structures with screens and canvas on all four sides. This allows the sea breeze to pass right through the tent. A big electric floor fan is also provided to help the circulation of air. Inside they have various sleeping configurations including bunk beds and double beds. There are no cooking or bath facilities in the tents. A restroom building is off to the side near a set of picnic tables and grills.
Eco tents along the side of Florida Bay.
My second walk of the day near sunset was very routine. I didn’t see anything new or remarkable. I’ve been here a week now, but there is usually something interesting to see.
The weather is getting hot in south Florida. I had to run the AC last night to make it comfortable to sleep and will probably have to run it again tonight. Today’s daytime high was in the upper eighties with high humidity and a clear sky above my campsite. The breeze off the ocean kept things comfortable as long as you were shaded from the direct sun.
I drove back on the main park road to the east entrance to the national park. I went back to the Royal Palm area and walked the Anhinga trail again. The 0.8 mile paved and boardwalk lined trail has a heavy wildlife concentration. In addition to lots of Anhinga birds and Alligators there are turtles, egrets, herons and other random animals to see. This is a very popular place. The parking lot has cars from all over North America and there is a wide selection of languages from visitors to this country to overhear along the trail.
My day began early so I could make another attempt at booking a Florida State Park stay for next winter. Much to my amazement I was successful. It was a different state park than the one I’ve been trying to book for the last two weeks, but it is a good park I’ve been to before. I will attempt to fill the two weeks at an Army Corp of Engineers park when the booking window opens in August or else I’ll reserve a commercial park somewhere in the state.
Tonight’s sunset.
The major activity for the day was a ninety minute boat tour into the Everglades back country. They use a relatively small pontoon boat for the task. There are only a total of six passengers with the captain. In my case the other five passengers were a family of five from a Spanish speaking country visiting the United States. The mom and dad spoke reasonable English, but the three kids under five years old barely communicated in any language. They were good kids. All they seemed to care about was the boat ride not the scenery.
Back Country Boat Tour
The kids had it right. The scenery and wildlife on the tour were not that remarkable. The tour starts by heading north along the man made dredged canal. This is the area all of the American Crocodiles and manatees can usually be spotted. The boat captain tried to talk up all of the crocodiles that are along the canal, but only managed to find three on the journey. The ones that are out of the water are well back in the mangroves that line the banks. We didn’t see any manatee and only saw a couple of egrets.
American Crocodile in the Mangroves
The canal empties into a large body of salt water. The tour boat cut right across Coot Bay to a natural channel lined with more mangroves. We didn’t see any wildlife on this part of the trip. The natural channel empties into Whitewater Bay an even bigger body of water that is open directly to the Gulf of Mexico. The captain took the boat in a big loop in Whitewater Bay and returned to the marina the way we came. On the trip back through the canal we stopped to see the same crocodiles we saw on the way out.
I really don’t think I was the right audience for the Back Country Boat Tour. The fact that we didn’t see a lot of wildlife can’t be controlled, but I’ve seen mangroves in other areas with easier access. The wildlife around the marina is better than what I saw on the tour today. I got more entertainment watching the two of the little kids running around the boat. The third one only crawled.
This evening I walked back over to the marina area. I saw a crocodile and all kinds of osprey. It was better wildlife viewing than on the 90 minute tour. Here are some of the pictures I took on my walk to the marina.
Yesterday was windy. Today was WINDY. During the night the wind picked up and started to howl out of the east. It continued all day. The temperature peaked around eighty degrees, but the wind out of the east was brutal. It seemed to be much cooler.
Old Glory blowing the wind in front of the Flamingo Visitors Center. Looking out into Florida B ay from the front of the Visitors Center build under reconstruction. The tour boat is returning to the marina in this picture.
I hung around my RV home most of the day. It was an opportunity get a few chores done between my morning and late afternoon walks. The wind made the walks difficult. Between having to hold onto my hat to keep it on my head and leaning into the wind to keep from getting blown away, it was tough walking. Taking pictures was also difficult. The difficulty keeping my hand steady on one end and the subject moving on the other end doesn’t make for sharp pictures. It is still better than a cold day with snow in the north.
After yesterday’s cold front cleared the area, today was very windy and a lot less humid. The high temperature was around eighty while the sun dominated the sky. By late in the afternoon clouds took over the sky until a little before sunset. Overall it was a nice weather day.
The slow moving water through the grass prairie that is the Everglades.
Today I toured the roadside turnoffs along the main park road. I drove about thirty five of the thirty eight miles east toward the park entrance stopping at nearly all of the named scenic areas along the way. If walked five of the short loop trails. I may return later in the week for some of the longer trails. Adding up all the distances, I walked about three miles. Most of the loop trails were on boardwalks over the slow moving water of the everglades.
As I got closer to the east entrance and civilization the number of people and the amount of wildlife increased. At my first few stops near my campsite in the Flamingo area there were any birds or people at the pull offs. At the Royal Palm area near the east entrance there was a full parking lot and plenty of wildlife to see.
The weather forecast called for another cold front to pass through the area today. For most of the winter the weather pattern has called for a cold front to pass through every few days. The trick was knowing how much rain and wind came with the front. It sounded like today’s front was going to be one of the weaker variety, but none of the forecasts are for this immediate area. They are either for Miami, Key West or the Naples area. All of those areas are at least fifty miles away. It turned out to be a mild weather day, but I planned for the worst.
Tonight’s sunset over the campground. Wildflower blossom of the day
I got my first walk in early. The temperature was in the mid eighties and it was very humid at 9:30AM. By noon the sky to the north was looking threatening, so I retreated inside my RV home. It looked like it would rain at any minute for most of the afternoon. Around 4PM it finally started to rain. For the next half hour the area was subject to a couple of minutes of downpour followed by a few minutes break before repeating the pattern. The sun was back out by 5PM reflecting off all the puddles left by the rain. I took my second walk of the day after the rain.
Last night there were lots of tent campers in the various sections of the camping area, but there were still vacancies. I am very surprised at how empty the Flamingo area seems. The prime season is from November to April, but in many ways it seems more like the off season. In the visitors center and marina area there are more empty parking spaces than there are occupied spots. Perhaps the issue is all the reconstruction going on after the last few hurricanes. I don’t know if it is funding or the pandemic, but the rebuilding seems to be taking forever. The marina area, run by a concessionaire, is operational, but most of the boat slips are empty. The sign at the construction site for the visitors center says it will be opening in 2021. I doubt they will make it by the end of 2022. The temporary visitor center building will have to function for another year.
New Flamingo Lodge under construction. One of several buildings made of shipping containers.
The new Flamingo Lodge construction is the only thing that seems to have any urgency associated with it. There were construction workers on site both Saturday and Sunday. The rebuilt lodge will be very modern and potentially more resistant to water and wind in a hurricane. They are building it out of recycled shipping containers. Once again it is associated with the concessionaire, so it may be easier to spend money on a revenue generating structure as opposed to the visitors center of other infrastructure.
Canal into the backcountry waters. American Crocodile swimming in the canal.
On my walks today I continued to be drawn to the two Osprey nests. Watching the young wait for their next meal to arrive is fascinating. Tonight there were about five people with fancy cameras setup to get pictures at the nest in the marina. I like my pictures with my less than fancy camera.
Today was a mostly dry hot and humid day with a high temperature in the mid to upper eighties. The wet part of the day came as a ten minute burst of very heavy rain about 9:30 this morning. It created puddles around the campground that remained most of the day. More rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Another cold front is moving through the area.
Where is my lunch?Wildflower blossom of the day
I spent the day wandering around the campground and the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park. The Flamingo visitors center and marina area is about a mile away from my campsite. A combination of park roads and trails makes it easy to get there. There is also a loop trail nearby called the Eco pond trail. The half mile loop around a small freshwater pond was the most disappointing part of the day. I expected to see a few water birds, but I didn’t even see one.
Florida Bay
The Osprey nest on the trail to the visitors center area and the second nest at the marina made up for the lack of birds on the other trail. Each nest contains a nesting pair with almost full grown young. The nest at the marina has three young Osprey that are probably only days from leaving the nest. They seem to be very comfortable with all the people hanging around below the nest taking pictures.
The Florida Bay side of the marina has a family of manatee that call it home. I saw at least one today, but only got a picture of its brown back while it was near the surface. The American Crocodiles that live in the brackish waters on the other side of the marina were not visible while I was there today. A park ranger indicated there are at least three that usually hang around that area. There are ninety minute boat excursions from the marina into the bay and another into the back waters. I plan to take them during my week here.
I was up early this morning to get ready for travel. I should have slept a little longer. I was ready to travel by 9:30AM, but to time my arrival closer to the 3PM check in time I needed to leave close to the noon checkout time. Waiting around once you ready to go is very hard. I hooked up the car and moved to the dump station at 11AM and was on the road around 11:30AM.
My route took me down the main streets of Homestead Florida and Florida City. I think I could have avoided one or both with a little more study, but it worked out OK. It would have been better if the power wasn’t out at several intersections. Crossing four way intersections in heavy traffic when the traffic lights are dark is a little bit of a challenge. Luckily this is one time that being bigger than the average car seems to have a positive impact on the decision process the other drivers go through. When I was ready to proceed through the intersection everybody let me.
Osprey
The trip west across Everglades National Park on the main park road to the Flamingo area on the Florida Bay was interesting. It has been about twenty five years since I’ve been this deep into the park. I visited the eastern area about four years ago on my Rambling Road Trip. The combination of grass land, trees and water holes is not what I remember. It deserves some exploring over the next few days.
The Flamingo area of the park is still in a rebuilding phase after hurricane IRMA in 2017. The visitors center is in a temporary facility and the lodge is undergoing a complete re construction. The campground is also under repair, but not because of the long past hurricane. The T-Loop of the Flamingo campground that I’m staying in is getting repaved. My understanding is it started earlier in the week on the fifteenth and continues until June. The campground sent an email about three weeks ago warning people with reservations and attempting to scare them off. I don’t consider three weeks enough warning during Spring Break in Florida so I didn’t even attempt to change my reservations. Other people must have taken the warning. This section of the campground, which is the only one with electric hookups, is only about a third occupied. I don’t know what kind of torture the paving work will represent during my stay. So far it looks like they have just set up a lot orange cones. I live with it for the ten days I am here.
Site T-4 at the Flamingo Campground in Everglades National Park
There is no Verizon cell service and Over the Air TV is non existent. I have satellite TV and the AT&T prepaid mobile hot spot I bought last week is working to get me on the internet. The big thing is there are plenty of trails and natures creatures to keep me entertained during the day.
It was a foggy morning. The overnight humidity and still conditions allowed all the moisture from the last couple of days of rain to produced a layer of ground fog that lasted until about 10AM. Under the bright sun the temperature reached the upper eighties, but the afternoon was dominated by clouds. All around the campground dark clouds arrived with some rumbling of thunder and an occasional flash of lightening. Somehow it never rained here at the campground, but the National Weather Service did issue a severe storm warning.
Another insect up close. Blossom of the day.
This is my last full day here at the Big Cypress Preserve Midway Campground. I’ll be back again for five night later in the month. Tomorrow I’m traveling to the Flamingo Campground in the Everglades National Park. It is located about fifty miles south of here, but you’d get stuck in the water, grass and muck of the glades if you tried to go straight there. The land route is over one hundred miles long. It is necessary to travel east into the Miami suburbs, south to Homestead and then back to the west through the National Park. Flamingo is really in the middle of nowhere. I know I will not have Verizon Cell service. Hopefully, I’ll have internet access via AT&T.
Wildlife pictures from my stops along the trail heading for Naples.
Supplies and services are fifty miles east of the Flamingo campground in Homestead. I don’t want to make that run if I don’t have to, so I set out to fill up on provisions today. My choice for shopping was the Walmart forty eight miles west in Naples. The Walmart to the east in Miami is nearer, but harder to access if I recall my visit a few years ago. I also wanted to stop at a few more of the roadside stops west of here on the Tamiami trail. There were a few alligators to check up on.
Clouds building to the south of the campground.
I’m all set with supplies and I have most of the outside preparation tasks complete. Checkout time here is noon and check in time at the Flamingo campground is 3PM. I’ve read that they enforce the check in time, so I’ll need to find a place along the park road in the Everglades to stop and see the sights. The trick will be finding a place with enough room to park.
Reflections on the pond at sunset.
Just a reminder. If I don’t have internet access this blog will be delayed. My intent is to continue to write my daily blog and take a set of pictures every day. Every couple of days I’ll drive back to the east side of the Everglades National Park and post the blog while in the area advertised to have Verizon access. There is plenty of trails to hike and things to see in that area as well.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 