Skip to main content

The Everglades - Part 2

Monday, March 14th – Everglades National Park, Florida – Day 35 

 We were up bright and early this day. We decided to skip breakfast to get out of the house early to see the Marvelous Manatees talk. We also tried to get a spot on the free kayak tour but Florida Bay was too windy again. The Manatee talk was interesting. The ranger leading the talk stretched a 15 minute talk into an hour and ranging from Manatees to Crocodiles to Osprey with a speckling of his life and career thrown in. Still no manatees but we saw the Osprey feeding their babies again. Apparently, Osprey are successful in one out of four hunting trips so I guess you see that a lot. Males will eat part of the prey in a separate location before bringing the rest home to the female and babies. 

Once the talk was sort of finished since we faded towards the back, we headed back to the campsite for breakfast. The kids found their friends again. A family from Tallahassee with two girls. They were playing for hours. Their father Andy came over to chat and we all got an invitation to s’mores after dinner. 

We decided on another hike, the eco pond, a quick 1.6km loop around a pond. Unfortunately, the eco pond looked very dead. The water was brown, trees were dead all over the place, few animals. Apparently, historic development north of the park has limited fresh water entering the park. Since there is less fresh water, more salt water is encroaching into eco systems, and the water is becoming more salty. The eco pond may have been victim to the saltier salt water pushed inland in the last hurricane. Regardless, not a great hike. 


 Everyone was tired and hot, so we went back to the campground to recharge. It was a very pleasant afternoon and evening. Charlotte, John and I sat down to hammer through some junior ranger activities. John was really involved. The kids played with their friends. We were chatting with their parents and hanging out. The day was lovely.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meow Wolf and O

Wednesday, May 25th –Lake Mead National Recreation Area to Las Vegas, Nevada – Day 104  We woke up in our roadside turn out and got ready for the day. Our plan was to go for a swim at Lake Mead, see the Hoover Dam and head back into Vegas. The morning was stifling hot, we were looking forward to the swim.   We drove to the visitor centre at Lake Mead Recreation Centre. We could see Lake Mead on the way. The water was well below the high-water line on the rocks. At the visitor centre we got our passport stamped, filled our water bottles, and received junior ranger booklets. The air conditioning was so nice we set up the kids to work on their booklets and hung around. The kids finished up enough activities that they were sworn in by a very nice ranger before we left.   We decided to go see the Hoover Dam first. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot. We heard it might need to be opened at the security checkpoint and we couldn’t be bothered. The H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 1

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Utah is another planet. I cannot do justice to the sights that I have seen in Canyonlands National Park. They are beyond compare. I would encourage everyone to visit. The pictures we have taken do not convey the beauty of the scenery we witnessed.   We woke up in the morning after a late night. The kids did some schoolwork. We ate our oatmeal. We tried to clean up the dust that was all over the trailer. The wind had subsided in the night and the morning was pleasant and warm. Aisling had made us promise that we would climb the rock that they had all been climbing on. We strapped on our hiking boots and started towards the rock. A quick climb later we were at the top; on the way down, we were looking for pretty rocks.  The road to Canyonlands sits between two buttes with their cliffs rising on either side. The drive was thirty minutes to the entrance. The visitor centre had displays that detailed what each layer of the canyo...
Post a Comment
Read more