As we left Everglades National Park, we drove west through Big Cypress National Preserve. It’s another million acres of wetlands, though deeper and with slower moving water. Yes, the folks at Cypress are proud of their swamp! The National Preserve status allow for more recreational usage (compared to a National Park) so fossil fuel exploration and extraction, hunting, and off-road vehicle use are all permitted. There are also parcels of land withing the preserve that are privately owned, and traditional uses by the indigenous Seminole and Miccosukee tribes are also allowed.
The Tamiami Trail (rhymes with Tammy-ammy), aka Highway 41, is at the northern edge of the Everglades and cuts through the middle of Big Cypress. The views are similar. And true exploration of the preserve requires a boat or swamp buggy (yup, that’s a thing here).
What surprised us were the critters! Close your eyes. Move in any direction. Open your eyes. You’ll see a critter. We could’ve spent the full day at the Oasis Visitor Center boardwalk, which is just a few hundred yards long! We also checked out several roadside parks, also with boardwalks and interpretive signs – and more critters. An exhibit on the five swamp/marsh environments was a wonderful summary of all we’d just seen in our week in South Florida. For those interested, here’s that exhibit in full.
As for the big cypress for which the preserve is named, well, they’ve all been logged. One state park north of the preserve holds the few remaining large cypress trees…
As we were walking back to the RV after the last visitor center, we again passed hundreds of gar (a kind of fish), 47 white ibis, 10 alligators, a dozen anhingas, 2 great blue herons and a snowy egret. We didn’t even reach for our phones to take photos. It was ok to just stop and admire them. To us, that’s the sign. We’ve learned what we wanted to learn and saw what we came to see. We’re so glad we decided to visit South Florida! And it’s time to start heading north.
There are 2 more national parks in South Florida. Dry Tortugas required a long boat ride (and challenging logistics to park our RV in Key West) in order to visit a historical fort 70 miles west of Key West. Biscayne National park is also on an island and required a boat ride, likely with equally challenging parking logistics in Miami, and recreational opportunities are all about paddling, fishing, snorkeling, diving – none of which we do. Even though we do love and appreciate our country’s national parks, we decided to pass on these.
We’re northward bound!
For anyone interested, more Big Cypress pix…
