FL Pics: Big Cypress

As you get upland (we're talking differences of inches of elevation) and away from saltwater, you start to see fewer mangroves and more and more cypress trees.


And then you're out of Everglades National Park and into Big Cypress National Preserve.


We saw at least one alligator every time there was enough of a break in the trees to look. And several were right on the edge of the road!

FL Pics: Hell's Bay & Florida Bay

Ever since our last canoe trip in the Everglades -- on the Turner River, through mangrove tunnels so close we had to put down our paddles and pull our way through -- Matt had been thinking we should check out Hell's Bay. "Hell to get into and hell to get out of," the saying goes, because of the mangroves. Instead of following a single river, though, it's a path that has been marked through an estuarial area that is miles and miles of mangrove islands. There truly is no way you could find your way through the maze without following the posts that have been laid out. There were many quick 90 degree turns that we learned about only once we could see around the corner to see the next marker. And thank goodness someone warned us about a missing marker, or we might have been going around in circles for hours.


After 5 miles of twists and turns, we made it to the Hells Bay chickee: our home for the night.

Before we set out, a ranger warned us we might hear very sporadic breathing noises in the night: dolphins coming up for air. Sure enough, we heard quite a bit of splashing and breathing and even got out of the tent at one point to shine our headlamps around, but saw nothing. The next day, though, we made several dolphin sightings.

At dawn and dusk, the mosquitoes were abundant, noisy, and hungry. Thus, this picture of the sunrise through the tent window. If you zoom in you can probably see the dozens of bugs on the screen.



We also made a bonus canoe trip out on the Florida Bay, which is more open. We saw many more birds than we had seen in Hell's Bay, including huge white pelicans. They were a special treat because we had also seen them in their summer home up in Montana.


And then, after we had pulled the canoe out of the water, someone spotted a couple of manatees from the dock. We watched them play for quite a while until some boats came through and scared them away.

FL Pics: Beaches

live starfish

sunrise/moonset on Sanibel Island

Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island -- the pictures don't do justice to the waves crashing on the rocks. Who knew there were rocky shores in Florida? This one only lasts for about a mile.

We kept finding blue balloons of various sizes on one particular beach and couldn't figure out what they were until we found this more-recently washed up specimen. Apparently it's a Portuguese Man o' War -- ouch! (Check out the wikipedia entry for more fun and fascinating facts.)

Not pictured: we watched someone reel in a 4-foot-long black-tip shark! Kinda like this guy. Matt held the pole for a while while two people wrestled it up onto the sand.

FL Pics: Merritt Island

We stopped at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (near Cape Canaveral) thinking we might just pass through for a day, and ended up spending three days. There were so many birds, of so many kinds, it took us several hours just to drive the 7-mile wildlife drive...and we drove it over and over.





One afternoon, we stopped to look briefly at an anhinga. We then noticed a little gator sitting nearby, watching the anhinga.


We noticed some movement far off, and after a while squinting through the binoculars saw two wild pigs, and watched them for a while. Then someone else spotted a pair of ears in the grass in front of us. Raccoon? Panther? After a while it trotted into full view...a bobcat.


After a couple of tours around the wildlife drive, we knew where to look for this guy -- a roseate spoonbill. I thought they were endangered, but it turns out that after reaching the brink of extinction in the late 1800's (due to hunting for their feathers), populations have recovered just enough that they're no longer a protected species.


These guys are listed as endangered -- but we saw quite a few on our trip: wood storks.


We especially liked sunrise and sunset, when the birds would fly in flocks to and from their roosting/feeding spots.

FL Pics: Juniper Springs Run

We took an early-morning paddle down the river that flows from Juniper Spring. It was a cold night, and the water is always 72 degrees, so there was magical steam over the crystal-clear water for much of our trip.

FL Pics: Way Down Upon the Suwanee River

It's only about an hour from Gainesville, but we had never gone to the Suwannee River. Very different from most of the other rivers in the area -- for most of the stretch we paddled, at least, there are limestone cliffs that have been eroded into swiss-cheesy formations.

FL Pics: Gators & Cranes at Payne's Prairie

Three years ago Payne's Prairie had so much water in it we went kayaking. This year it was back as I remembered...

...plus more sandhill cranes than I ever remember seeing.


On our walk out to the observation platform a ranger told us to look for the mama alligator and all her babies. We saw the mama...


...but totally missed the babies until we were walking back. (They're actually in the background of the picture above.) I count at least a baker's dozen in there.