Everglades, Florida

It’s been about 5 years since we’ve been to the Everglades, so we decided to pack up and head down. 🧳

We love visiting state and national parks, and we think it’s great that there’s a program that gives 4th graders a free pass to the national parks. Here’s the link in case you have a 4th grader and would like to get a pass. https://everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm Since Juliana is in the 4th grade this year, we used it to go to the Everglades National Park and we have a few more national parks we plan on visiting. 😉

When we first arrived, we went to the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. It was very crowded, so we didn’t stay long and decided to venture out on the trails instead. 🚶

The first trail we took was the Anhinga Trail. There was a very nice boardwalk we followed which took us over the Taylor Slough. We saw White Egrets, White Ibis, a few alligators, Purple Gallinules, Anhingas, and Great Blue Herons. It was a beautiful trail and we loved seeing the wildlife around us. 🦢🐊

We decided to drive around the park to see a lot of the different areas. We stopped a few times along the way to view the wildlife before venturing to the final trail we walked–the Guy Bradley Trail. It had rained pretty hard earlier that day, so the paths had a lot of water on them and we ended up with some soaked shoes. 👟 It was worth it to walk along Florida Bay on the Gulf of Mexico side and to see the mangrove shoreline. We really enjoyed the interesting plants that grew and were able to see some more birds. 🌿

We saw White Ibis, Ravens, Cormorants, and Herons. The coolest plants we found were the Seaside Saltwort and Knicker Nuts (what a hilarious name!). 🤣

The Everglades National Park was really educational and we definitely had a great time exploring. 🧭

Here are some videos of some of the animals in the park:

The Everglades National Park was amazing, but now it was time to have some more fun. Next on our agenda? Everglades Alligator Farm! 😃

When we got to the park, we decided to go on the next available airboat ride. Adult tickets are $37 and kids age 4-11 are $29. All tickets include an airboat tour. We decided to sit in the front row “Soak Zone” seats on the airboat. We knew we’d get wet, but we wanted front row seats to get the full experience. 🌊

The airboat ride was an absolute blast! It took the rest of the day at the park to dry our clothes, but it was definitely worth it! On the airboat, we got to see the beauty of the Everglades up close and personal. Being rather close to the level of the alligators we saw was incredible. 🐊 We were safe, so it was a great experience to see them so close in the wild. We saw egrets, anhingas, white ibis, herons, and more. 🦢

Here are some videos of the airboat ride:

After the airboat ride, it was time to watch the Alligator Feeding Show. There are over 2000 alligators at the park and around 300 of them were in the pond. The show was awesome and it was pretty cool to watch the gator feeding. 🐊

Video of the alligator feeding:

Wandering around the park was enjoyable. We saw a bobcat, some emus, macaws, turtles, fox, all kinds of snakes, and of course thousands of alligators. 🤩

Here’s our emu buddy video:

The next show was the Alligator Handling Show. The handler’s name was Lee and he was amazing! There is no way I’d ever try what he did with the gators. 🤯

You can watch Lee in action here:

Afterwards we were able to hold some small alligators. They were warm and soft–not at all what they look like. It was a great experience for all of us! 😎

After the alligator shows, we decided to have some gator bites. They were delicious, but in all honesty, the ones they make at a restaurant closer to where we live actually tasted a bit better. 🤤

We were pretty tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel and relax at the pool. We wanted to make sure we were rested up for our next adventures! 😄💖

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Thanks so much and stay tuned for more Traveling with the Trapps!

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