River of Grass

Fresh Water. It is everywhere here. It is not only the life blood of the Everglades, it IS the Everglades.

We were expecting a swamp, with still, dark waters and alligators.

We found a river, 50 miles wide and about 6 inches deep, of clear, fresh water and full of grass. And the occasional alligator.

The river has small islands, sometimes barely inches out of the water, surrounded by mangroves and covered in trees. But the river and its grass and its ever-present wading birds, is all around.






 It flows softly towards the Gulf of Mexico and into Florida Bay, a saltwater body of water that is almost as shallow as the river itself. 

At low tide, much of the bay is a mudflat.

There really is very little in the way of elevation change in the entire area. Even the tallest islands in the river are only 4 feet over sea level.

We started our Everglades adventure in the far south part of the park. We even paddled Florida Bay, fishing along the mangroves that mark the shoreline, and almost got stuck in the rising mud flat when the tide lowered.

Inland, – a nebulous term here indeed – the river has a few deeper spots, called ponds. A few of the fish from one pond were unlucky enough to catch the bait my hubby dangled for them. As soon as we noticed the “floating log” nearby that was drifting closer with eyes intent on our stringer catch, we hauled them in and relocated ourselves.

There are marked paddling trails through some of the larger mangrove stands. It was a lure we couldn’t resist.  The trails are marked with white PVC pipes sticking out of the water. But when you navigate the mangrove tunnels to looking for those pipes, some of them are not immediately obvious. In fact, we managed to get lost at least twice on our first trail. The key is to go back to the last marker you saw, and paddle in circles around the area until you find the next. It takes about an hour to paddle one mile in those conditions.

It was much easier canoeing on the river portion of the paddling trails. Pretty much a straight line from one pole to the next. Easy!

The mangrove mazes and the alligators are not the only hazard in this park. Black vultures sit in the parking lots, waiting for victims to leave their car alone while they paddle or go inside visitor centers. The birds walk around, atop the lonely vehicle, terrorizing it by pecking at the tires or worse, they perch on the roof and destroy the rubber seals of the doors or wiper blades.

At least they warn you. Sometimes they even supply tarps to put over your car.

The vultures, alligators, mudflats and the occasional encounter with a snake we found tolerable. The mosquitoes we didn’t. The first campground we stayed in, at the bottom of the park, was barely occupied. Now we understand why. We only lasted 5 days there before we moved to the more northern campground. It is closer to the Miami sprawl, but farther from the bugs.

That’s okay. Miami is just another jungle to explore.

W