Visiting Everglades National Park was a unique experience. It's unlike any other place we have been. We opted for an airboat tour to see it up close. There are also hiking and biking trails and boat rides as other options for exploring. Being down close to the water and zipping through narrow passageways was exciting, with beautiful scenery and abundant wildlife of birds, alligators, turtles and snakes. We did not see any snakes, but we saw at least a 1/2 dozen alligators, many birds and a few turtles. We were all content to keep our feet inside the airboat!
The Everglades National Park consists of 1.5 million acres of wetland preserve. The seagrass is a natural water purifier, which is an important element to the Florida ecosystem. Approximately two-thirds of Floridians get their drinking water from the Everglades. The Everglades are home to hundreds of animal species. Unfortunately one of them is the python snake, not natural to the area. They were introduced by people that had python pets that grew too big and dangerous to care for. There is no natural predator for the python, so it has created a large challenge with over 100,000 of them now in the Everglades.
While not found in the Everglades, Florida is the only place in the world where you can find both alligators and crocodiles. Crocodiles are green and found in salt water, and alligators are black and found in fresh water.
The dry season in the Everglades runs from November to March, which is a perfect time to visit. It becomes very buggy in the wet season. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Everglades National Park! We expected to see the wildlife, but we were pleasantly surprised by the serene and beautiful landscape.
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