Everglades – Anhinga

The best hike at the Everglades at this time of the year is the Anhinga Trail. We expected to see a couple of alligators, but they were all over. Right at the beginning of the trail, this guy sits like a statue (but we saw his eyes move).

I was worried about these alligators. They were only a few feet from the trail with no fence between us and the alligators. Several young children ran up close to them. I don’t think so!

It seemed like Gatorland in this spot. I stopped counting at fifteen alligators.

The weird part is that the park provides tarps and cords to tie over your car. Apparently the vultures will attack the rubber in the cars.

While the Everglades Park looks flat to me, there are subtle differences in height of a few feet. During the wet summer, water spreads to more areas. In the dry winter, the water retreats to areas like this borrow pit. This attracts the alligators and these birds.

We did the trail a second time in the evening on a ranger tour. The alligators were more active in swimming around plus the sounds were completely different. Pretty cool!