River of Grass: Everglades by Foot, Canoe & Boat

The Anhinga Trail is the most productive wildlife trail in North America relative to its length: 0.8 miles of boardwalk and paved path through Taylor Slough where the concentration of large wading birds, reptiles, and aquatic wildlife per square foot is simply astonishing. The trail is named for the anhinga — a long-necked diving bird that, unlike ducks, has no waterproofing in its feathers and must stand with wings spread wide to dry after each dive. In winter (November through April), the trail's observation platforms overlook pools dense with alligators, great blue herons, great egrets, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, and purple gallinules — many of them so accustomed to human visitors that they hunt and feed within feet of the boardwalk railings. The alligators in the central pool can be enormous; it is not uncommon to see individuals over 10 feet long basking within touching distance of the walkway. This is not a zoo — these are wild animals in their wild habitat, and the Everglades' hydrological cycle naturally concentrates them here during the dry season.

Adjacent to the Anhinga Trail, the 0.4-mile Gumbo Limbo Trail loops through a tropical hardwood hammock — an island of elevated ground in the sawgrass prairie where tree species found nowhere else in the continental United States grow in dense shade. The trail takes its name from the gumbo limbo tree, whose peeling red bark earned it the local nickname 'tourist tree' for its resemblance to the sunburned skin of visiting northerners. Wild tree orchids, strangler figs, and massive royal palms characterize the hammock ecosystem; the temperature inside the hammock can be 10 degrees cooler than the open prairie on a summer day.

Pa-hay-okee is the Miccosukee name for the Everglades: 'grassy waters.' A short elevated boardwalk leads to an observation platform above the vast interior sawgrass prairie — the heart of Marjory Stoneman Douglas's 'river of grass,' the phrase she coined in her 1947 book that galvanized the conservation movement that created the national park that same year. The view from the platform is one of the most disorienting in Florida: a flat, treeless sea of sawgrass extending to every horizon, broken only by distant hammocks and a sky so large it curves. In winter, red-tailed hawks and short-eared owls hunt above the grass; in summer, afternoon thunderstorms build into walls of lightning over the prairie. Bring water and a hat — there is no shade at the overlook.

The Flamingo Visitor Center has a small café — sandwiches, snacks, and coffee. It's the only food option in the park south of Royal Palm (35 miles of wilderness). Eat here or pack lunch from Miami, as there are no other options until you leave the park.

Flamingo sits at the southern tip of the Florida mainland, where the sawgrass prairie finally meets Florida Bay in a maze of mangrove islands, tidal channels, and shallow flats that stretch 35 miles to the Keys. The Flamingo marina rents kayaks and canoes for paddling the Buttonwood Canal — a 1-mile channel through buttonwood trees connecting Florida Bay to Coot Bay, with excellent bird life and, in winter months, occasional manatee sightings. The surrounding waters are the only place in the world where American alligators and American crocodiles share the same habitat: alligators prefer the fresh water of the interior; crocodiles prefer the brackish and salt water of the coast; and at Flamingo, both ecosystems meet. The Eco Pond trail (1-mile loop) offers some of the best birding in the park, especially at dawn and dusk.