Everglades
An American Crocodile in Shark Valley, Everglades
I spent two days in Everglades National Park and had a blast. There are so many beautiful sights to see and great opportunities for wildlife watching and taking photos.
Hotel
I decided to stay closer to downtown Miami during my trip and chose Sentral Wynwood. I loved having an apartment, including a washing machine and a full kitchen, while I was visiting. Sentral was an easy drive to and from the Miami airport as well, and there were a ton of restaurants in the neighborhood.
There are endless places to stay around Miami as well as near the northern and southern entrances to the national park if the downtown area is not your scene. Miami also has a ton of gluten free food options to choose from. A few of the sites I researched when I was planning my trip are:
National park sights
I visited in January and my first stop was the Anhinga Trail almost at lunch time.
The lunch time detail is important because, from what I read doing my trip research, if you park here very early in the morning there’s a chance that vultures will rip up your car.
There is a container of tarps at the visitor’s center that you can use to try to secure your car while you’re in the lot. Tarp reviews are hit or miss as it seems like at least some of the vultures know how to get around them.
Some say the vultures get worse during the warmer months, others say during the early morning hours, but at least during my visit I didn’t see any troublemakers. The parking lot was very busy and that might have affected things, too.
Regardless of vandal vultures, this was a great stop. I saw lots of alligators and even heard one bellowing.
The Gumbo Limbo trail is a beautiful short trail just off the parking lot.
As you continue through the southern part of the park, there are lots of small trails and pull-off areas along the park road on the way toward Flamingo. I definitely recommending stopping at as many as possible along your drive.
The second day of my trip was spent on the northern part of the park. I started with a wildlife tour at Shark Valley. The tram tour was fun, but if I could do things again I would rent a bike instead. The paved loop is about 15 miles long. The tram moved pretty quickly and I would have liked more time to take photos and watch the wildlife.
I also spent a few hours driving along Loop Road on the northern side of the park and I absolutely loved this drive. This is a mostly dirt road with dozens of places to see critters. There were only a few other cars when I was there and I liked having tons of time to hang out and watch wildlife. Near the northern part of the road there is a stop with a few vault toilets near the trailhead if you need a break.
Food in and near the park
On my way into the southern side of the park, I stopped at Robert is Here and bought some snacks for the day and one of the best smoothies I’ve ever had. I chose coconut, pineapple and cherry, and I wish I could have another one right now.
They also have milkshakes.
At the very southern end of the park, I stopped at Flamingo Restaurant. The employees here were helpful with my menu questions and they have gluten free buns, wraps and other options. They did let me know that their fryer is a shared one, but there are other side options available.
For the day I spent on the northern side of the park, I brought snacks and water with me.
