Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. Living the RV Dream with Traveling Robert podcast. Episode 1
I’ve been living in Miami for almost 30 years, and it is now that I’m beginning to discover the great State of Florida. Before RVing, most vacations consisted of going to some faraway place. Having a trailer, and the fact that we are “trapped” in the state being to far south, has forced us to explore places that are closer, and until we start fulltiming that will be the case. One of those places is pretty much in our very own our backyard: the Everglades National Park.
In my experience there are three main areas to explore.
Florida City Entrance
The first entrance is by Florida City, where there is a road that goes all the way to Flamingo, at the southern tip of mainland Florida. There are two main campgrounds in this area. The first one near the entrance is Long pine Key, which is primitive. The other one is Flamingo, at the end of the road, which has water and electric. There are plenty of nature trails, and even a missile site from the Cold War era. Right outside the national park, there is this place called Alligator Farm, where you can see all kinds of reptiles and birds. They also have very enjoyable airboat rides.
Shark Valley
The second entrance I’m going to talk about is Shark Valley. The entrance is located on US-41, the Tamiami Trail in the Miccosukee Indian reservation. There is a 15-mile loop road that you can see by riding your bicycle or by taking a tram tour. At the southernmost point of the loop road there is an observation tower where you get unobstructed commanding views of the Everglades. On the loop road you will see plenty of wildlife, particularly alligators, much more plentiful during the winter months.
Big Cypress National Preserve
As we continue West on US-41, we enter a more wooded area called Big Cypress National Preserve. Do stop by the Oasis Visitors Center to get some information and see the alligators on the side of the road. This is also the southern terminus of the Florida Trail. There are several campgrounds on the area. Midway has water and electric, Monument Lake and Burns Lake are primitive. The best kept secret is the loop road that begins at the Monroe Station. It is an unpaved road that goes deep into the preserve. In my opinion the best experience because you can stop by the side of the road whenever you spot some wildlife, which is everywhere. The road ends on the east by the aforementioned Miccosukee village. There’s another primitive campground near that end of the road called Mitchell’s Landing.
All along US-41 in this area there are plenty of touristy places to do airboat rides, eat frog legs and alligator bites, although my favorite place for that is Joanie’s Blue Crab Cafe, which is located further west by the site of the Ochopee Post Office, smallest one in the United States, and the road that goes to Everglades City, which is my third (fourth) and final recommendation.
Everglades City
From Everglades City at the National Park Service the is a great boat tour. From the tour you can see all kinds of birds but the main attraction are usually the dolphins. If you go in the winter they will sail by Indian Key, where there is a massive flock of white pelicans. You can only see them in the winter as they are a snow bird. There are a couple of campgrounds in this area. There’s the Outdoors Resort of Chokoloskee, at Chokoloskee Island, and Trail Lakes on US-41, and further west there of course Collier Seminole State Park and Naples/Marco Island KOA.
Hope you enjoy this first episode of the Living the RV Dream reboot. Don’t forget to send your feedback to robert@travelingrobert.com or a voicemail by following the link on the top right corner. Also watch my videos on YouTube.
Links:
Original interview with John and Kathy
Living the RV Dream podcast: Gathering Episode
Living the RV Dream Gathering 2015
The podcast is being streamed on Thursdays at 11am, 5pm, and 11pm, and on Sundays at 6pm on WRVO Radio Network 1.
See you next week, when we will have our first interview.
If you buy on Amazon follow the link below. It cost you the same and I get a bit of commission for sending you over.
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