Everglades National Park is a big park with much to see and do!Check out the videos below to help you plan your visit! Main Park Road Video Player is loading. Descriptive TranscriptDescription Narrator: A group of alligators thrash into the water. Fish swim around underwater vegetation. A controlled fire burns a habitat. A bird appears in a hole in a dead tree. A ranger gives a guided canoe tour. Aerial footage of Mangroves. A snail glides along a tree branch. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo. An RV drives along the Main Park Road. Ranger Mason: Welcome to Everglades National Park. I'm Ranger Mason, and I'll be your guide for what to see and where to be along the Main Park Road. Description Narrator: A truck drives past the park entrance sign. A road sign points to the Visitor Center and Park Headquarters. Ranger Mason stands in front of vegetation and a road. Ranger Mason: Here we are at the Coe Visitor Center. This is a great place to start your trip and plan your journey through the Everglades. You can go inside and pick up a map and speak to a ranger. You can also pick up a schedule of our Ranger-led programs for that day. Description Narrator: Ranger Mason walks across the boardwalk to the Visitor Center and speaks to visitors inside the Center. Speaker 1: And how long does it take to get all the way through? Ranger Mason: All the way, all the way to Flamingo? It's about an hour, 38 miles. It’s a beautiful drive though. Description Narrator: Distance between Coe Visitor Center & Flamingo equals 38 miles. It takes at least half a day if you stop along the way. Mason points to each stop along the road on a map. Ranger Mason: Today we're going to be headed from the entrance all the way down to Flamingo, and along the way we'll be stopping at Royal Palm, Long Pine Key, Pa-hay-okee Overlook, Mahogany Hammock, West Lake and finally, Flamingo. Description Narrator: Mason drives along the Main Park Road. Birds stand in and cross the road. Ranger Mason: As you drive through the park, look out for wildlife crossing the road, and make sure to pay attention to all the road signs. A lot of people, when they come here for the first time are expecting to see a deep, dark swamp. And they're amazed to really see a mosaic of habitats that include open freshwater sloughs, pinelands, hardwood hammocks, cypress domes, and mangrove swamps. Description Narrator: Mason turns into the first destination. Stop 1: Royal Palm. A boardwalk extends out over the water. A seating area and restrooms are next to the parking lot. Ranger Mason: So, the area that we are standing at is Royal Palm. It's one of the favorite stops of visitors in the Everglades, mainly for the Anhinga Trail. It's a trail that walks you out into the marsh and you get to see a lot of wildlife. Description Narrator: A sign points visitors to the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trails. Anhinga Trail: Taylor slough, Sawgrass prairie, man-made lake. Ranger Mason: During the winter, the water levels drop. Everything is concentrated right here, giving you this great opportunity to see the wildlife up close. Description Narrator: An alligator crawls out of the water next to an Anhinga sitting along the shore. Dry season at Taylor Slough shows lower water levels; Wet season at Taylor Slough shows higher water levels and more plants. Ranger Mason: You know, everything is living its life in tune with this up high and low water levels, whether it be fish, alligators, birds, they're all in one way or another, kind of living their life in tune with that. Description Narrator: Mason points out an Anhinga to some visitors. The visitors get closer to observe. Ranger Mason: Here's an Anhinga catching a fish here. Speaker 2: Oh my god, it’s a fish! Description Narrator: People gather to view the bird; a boy races over with his camera. Speaker 3: Aw, man! I missed it. Description Narrator: A road sign warns drivers of panthers crossing, next 2 miles. Stop 2: Long Pine Key. The road sign lists that Long Pine Key has camping, picnic areas, and an auditorium. Flamingo is 34 miles ahead. Long Pine Key: Globally imperiled pine rocklands; interspersed prairies and hammocks; man-made lakes. Footage of campsites, visitors observing wildlife, and walking trails. Various scenery. A picnic area overlooks a lake. A roadway passes through the pine rocklands. Stop 3: Pa-hay-okee. The road sign shows the stop has a watch tower, and Flamingo is 26 miles ahead. A portion of a sign at the boardwalk trail reads: Pa-hay-okee Trail. An observation platform halfway around this trail provides a chance to view this Everglades wilderness as it appeared to the early inhabitants. For hundreds of years Calusa, Miccosukee, and early pioneers made their homes in this terrain… Pa-hay-okee: Shark River slough; Sawgrass prairie; near cypress strands and tree islands. Visitors walk with Ranger Mason to the Pa-hay-okee overlook looking out over the sawgrass prairie dotted with small trees. Speaker 4: …this was Africa or something. Ranger Mason: That’s what people say, they look out there and, “it looks like a, you know, Kenyan grasslands or something,” but this what we're looking out at is Shark River Slough. Shark River Slough is the main heart of the Everglades. When Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote that book River of Grass. This is what she was talking about, and it's all a flow of water that's coming down through these sawgrass prairies heading down south, eventually making its way out into the Gulf of Mexico. All right, you guys ready to head on down to Mahogany Hammock? Description Narrator: Scenery from the moving car. Stop 4: Mahogany Hammock. The road sign shows Flamingo 18 miles ahead. Ranger Mason: Our next stop is going to be walking inside one of those at Mahogany Hammock and those areas are literally islands out in the marsh. They might only be a foot or two higher, but they're high enough so that even during the summer, when the water levels rise, they don't flood. Description Narrator: A visitor walks across a boardwalk over wetland and enters the forested hammock. Ranger Mason: And then those hardwood trees, those gumbo limbos and mahogany trees can take root and they form these tree islands there. Description Narrator: Mahogany Hammock: hardwood hammock (tree island); surrounded by sawgrass prairie. Ranger Mason: And so, Shark River Slough all the way down is dotted by these tree islands. You can see just what, you know, what a different habitat this is than when we were standing out in that open marsh. Description Narrator: A close-up of a palm frond, a tree snail on a branch, a thick forest, fern, and shaded boardwalk trail. And that really is, if there's one thing that you'll see today as you go down the road, it's going to be the diversity of habitats. So, you know, you not only have the open sawgrass marshes, but right side by side, you know, you've got this dense tropical forest that's shaded. Completely different wildlife, you know, living in these things. Elevation plays a huge role out here, and you probably look out of this landscape and think, you know what elevation there is, there's nothing, you know, it's as flat as it gets. Description Narrator: A road sign reads: Dwarf Cypress Forest. Elevation 4 ft. Ranger Mason: But the difference of just several inches to one foot can make the difference of what kind of plant community is growing. And it all has to do with water levels. Lower spots are going to hold water for longer out of the year. And so that's where you get marshes. Meanwhile, hardwood trees, it's generally not going to want to grow out of areas that flooded for most of the year, and it won’t grow out there in the marsh. Description Narrator: Stop 5: West Lake. A portion of a sign at the boardwalk trail reads: West Lake Trail. Without this boardwalk, it would be a difficult challenge to reach West Lake through the tangle of mangrove branches and prop roots. This border world between land and sea is also dense with animal life, but much of it is hidden or beneath the surface… Visitors exit the trail. A sign reads: This trail is a chance to explore part of the largest protected mangrove forest in the Northern Hemisphere. The far section opens onto the waters of West Lake. A bird walks along the boardwalk handrails. The boardwalk extends from inside the forest to out over the water. West Lake: mangrove forest; Estuary. Islands of mangroves grow from the water. Mangrove roots hang down from the branches. Forests line the Main Park Road. Two ospreys sit in the nest atop a dead palm tree next to the road. Stop 6: Flamingo. Flamingo: mangrove forest; coastal prairie; estuary; Florida Bay. People camp and boat around the bay. The Flamingo Visitor Center. A sign points to the Marina Store for food, fuel, tour boats, and to the boat ramp. The Coastal Prairie Trail sign notifies visitors that pets are not permitted. Ranger Mason stands in front of the open water of Florida Bay with islands in the background. Ranger Mason: And so here we are at the end of our journey, we have gone from the entrance of the park all the way down to Flamingo. And along the way we passed through saw grass prairies, a pine forest, tropical hardwood hammocks, mangrove forests. And now we find ourselves in the Flamingo area, which overlooks Florida Bay. Florida Bay is the recipient of all of the fresh water that we were looking at today. When we were standing at Taylor Slough, the water that was flowing through those sawgrass prairies was slowly making its way to this shallow ocean bay. Well, thanks for joining me on this trip down the Main Park Road. Enjoy your trip! Description Narrator: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park video. Featuring: Ranger Mason McLeod. Producer, Director, Editor: Jennifer Brown. Executive Producers: Allyson Gantt, Greg Litten, Alan Scott. Music performed by: Jami Sieber, ‘Invisible Wings’ from the Lush Mechanique album, ‘Benediction’ from the Unspoken album, ‘The River Between’ from the Unspoken album. Magnatunes Records, www.magnatunes.com. This program is dedicated to the memory of Ranger Mason McLeod who was lost in a plane crash while on duty in Katmai National Park, Alaska in August 2010.
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Informational video about the diversity of habitats accessible from the Main Park Road. Royal Palm Video Player is loading. Descriptive TranscriptDescription Narrator: A group of alligators thrash into the water. Fish swim around underwater vegetation. A controlled fire burns a habitat. A bird appears in a hole in a dead tree. A ranger gives a guided canoe tour. Aerial footage of Mangroves. A snail glides along a tree branch. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo. Double-crested Cormorants sit on the railing along a trail on the man-made lake at Royal Palm. The birds are black and brown with orange beaks and vibrant emerald-green eyes. Royal Palm. Speaker 1: If you have just one hour in the Everglades, Royal Palm is a great place to stop. You can spend as little or as much time here as you’d like. Royal Palm is the starting off point for the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail. Description Narrator: A sign points to the Anhinga trail (0.8-mile loop), and the Gumbo Limbo trail (0.4-mile loop). A female ranger stands at the beginning of the trail. Speaker 1: The Anhinga trail is one of the premiere wetland trails in the National Park Service, that winds through Taylor Slough and the Sawgrass Prairie. It offers excellent nature viewing experiences year-round, but especially during the winter or the dry season. During the dry season, the alligators and the Anhingas are breeding, and a shrinking Taylor Slough concentrates the wildlife. You can explore these trails on your own or with a Ranger-led program. Description Narrator: A brochure reads: Royal Palm Ranger-led Activities. Anhinga Amble: Join a ranger for a 50-minute walk along the Anhinga Trail. Discover unique subtropical plants, birdlife and watch out for alligators! Meet at the benches at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. Wheelchair accessible. Glades Glimpse: Short on time? Try the Glades Glimpse! Discover summer subtlety along the Anhinga trail on this 30-minute stroll. Meet at the benches at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. Wheelchair accessible. A Black Vulture takes flight next to some visitors. A male ranger speaks to a group of visitors. Speaker 2: So, to really grasp this landscape, we've got to come to grips with a little geology. About 100,000 years ago, there was a shallow sea here. It was just 3,000 years ago that we would have looked at a map or looked visually at South Florida and might have called it Everglades. This is a brand-new landscape. Description Narrator: An alligator floats partially submerged in the water. Another male ranger speaks to visitors. Speaker 3: These alligators will actually make pits out there in the Marsh. They will make gator holes and they can be about ten feet wide, four to six feet deep, so they make this habitat for themselves so that they can live and have a place to survive during the winter. Description Narrator: Underwater footage of small fish. A Great Blue Heron walks in shallow water. Speaker 3: Meanwhile, all their favorite foods come to live in the same spot with them. Those are also places where birds come to congregate, and those birds will be able to go on the edges of that gator hole and capture the fish that they need and then roost in the trees. You know, the cypress trees right above it. We call them a keystone species, you know, and they're kind of an architect of the Everglades. Description Narrator: A bird sits on a tree branch. An Anhinga swims in the lake, dipping its head underwater looking for fish. Speaker 3: These birds that you see across the way in the pond apple trees over there are in Anhingas. They are nesting here, that's why we call it the Anhinga Trail. Description Narrator: Multiple views of Anhinga behavior including juveniles in the nest. A close-up of an Anhinga preening its feathers. Speaker 3: Everyone's favorite spot is the Anhinga Trail because it's where you see the most up-close wildlife. And I like to remind people of this is that this is the kind of, it's a unique situation, the fact that we can get this close to birds like this and alligators. Typically, these same animals in a part of the park that doesn't have a trail like this are scared of people. Description Narrator: An alligator crawls out of the water next to an Anhinga. Turtles sit on a branch and an alligator floats in the water near the visitors on the trail. Visitors take photos of the wildlife. Speaker 4: You can see them better over here. [camaras click] Description Narrator: Maria Guerrero of Miami, Florida sketches scenery in a sketchbook. Maria Guerrero: We're actually taking pictures and doing sketches of different parts of the habitat so that when we go back to the classroom, we're going to mix them up and do a landscape. I'm drawing this area here where you see the little bridge, see there. I like the perspective, the diagonals of the bridge. The brownish, there's yellow, different shades of green. Description Narrator: An alligator rests in muddy water. Visitors walk along the trail. Speaker 1: The Gumbo Limbo Trail is a self-guided paved trail winding through a subtropical hardwood hammock, a habitat type unique to South Florida. Description Narrator: Visitors walk the forested Gumbo Limbo trail. Close-up of patches of lichen on a tree trunk. Mary Sholtey: What I saw today, well, a little lizard about that big, he was about the same color as the branch he was sitting on. I saw a couple of small little birds that would fit in the palm of your hand. They're kind of a blue-gray color. A lot of foliage. A lot of palms and ferny-type things that I sure wouldn't see if I went through a walk of native hardwoods in Indiana. Description Narrator: Mary Sholtey of Syracuse, New York. Mary Sholtey: It's a good example of probably successional growth and what happens to growth after like a hurricane. Speaker 1: For your trip to Royal Palm, and the rest of the Everglades, it is a good idea to bring your own food and water. Additional water is available at the Coe Visitor Center and here at Royal Palm. Description Narrator: Drinking fountains, vending machines, an information board, and gift shop at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. Speaker 1: In addition to the two trails, Royal Palm also has restrooms, vending machines and a gift shop. Description Narrator: The interior of the gift shop, selling books, clothes, toys, and other accessories. A realistic toy of two baby alligators on a mother alligator’s back. Image fades to two baby alligators in the water. Speaker 5: Did you expect to see stuff like this on this trail or are you surprised? Ian Stewart: Yes, but not so much. I didn't think we'd see all the Anhingas and stuff, even though it's called the Anhinga trail. Speaker 5: Is there one thing that stuck in your head? Description Narrator: A boy stands in front of a group of adults. Ian Stewart of Plymouth, Minnesota. Ian Stewart: Well, how important the alligators are to the ecosystem, they dig the holes and get all the organisms come live with them in the water. And then they provide food for the gators, the bobcats, the otters, huge diversity of species. Description Narrator: A cormorant walks along the paved trail toward a photographer with a tripod. Speaker 5: What would you tell visitors that have never been to Anhinga Trail before? Speaker 6: Take the guided tours. Ian Stewart: Make sure you bring a camera, Speaker 7: Take advantage of your tax dollars. Speaker 6: And bring binoculars. Speaker 7: Yeah, bring binoculars. Speaker 8: You can see things without the guided tour, but you find out the background of everything by taking the guided tour. Speaker 1: For more information on the Everglades, check out our other podcasts or check out the park's main website. Description Narrator: An alligator walks slowly past buildings while text appears on screen: Royal Palm is open 24 hours a day. Food and pets are not allowed on park trails. Both trails are wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices are available. Speaker 1: Royal Palm is located about five miles southwest of the Ernest Coe Visitor Center. Description Narrator: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park video. Executive Producers: Greg Litten, Allyson Gantt. Featuring: Ranger Jennifer Wilcox, Ranger Leon Howell, and Ranger Mason McLeod. Music performed by: LVX Nova, ‘Kyoto Nights’ from the self-titled album, and Jami Sieber, ‘Invisible Wings’ from the Lush Mechanique album. Magnatunes Records, www.magnatunes.com.
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Informational video about visiting Royal Palm. Shark Valley Video Player is loading. Descriptive TranscriptDescription Narrator: A group of alligators thrash into the water. Fish swim around underwater vegetation. A controlled fire burns a habitat. A bird appears in a hole in a dead tree. A ranger gives a guided canoe tour. Aerial footage of Mangroves. A snail glides along a tree branch. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo. Aerial and underwater views of lily pads in a pond. Blooming sawgrass. A tram filled with visitors. Shark Valley. Visitors walking up the tower ramp. Ranger Laurie: Well, hey there, I'm Ranger Laurie. I want to welcome you to Everglades National Park, and here we're at Shark Valley, which is the north entrance to the park. And you're actually in a valley, here. We are in the valley of the Shark River Slough. Description Narrator: The camera pans 360 degrees to show the listed points of interest. Ranger Laurie: When you come into Shark Valley, everything is right here. Visitor center, trams, bicycles, restrooms, you do not have to go far to go out on the path. Description Narrator: Visitors walking and biking, and a tram driving on the paved trail that parallels a canal. Ranger Laurie: And what we have when I say path, we have a 15-mile loop out here. It just takes you right out into the Everglades, immerses you into it. There's several different ways to explore. We have a two-hour guided tram tour. You can rent a bicycle or bring your own if you have it with you. Another way to explore if you don't have two hours to ride a bike or take the tram tour, you can just walk right down the trail here behind the visitor center. Description Narrator: A softshell turtle lays in the middle of the trail. Ranger Laurie: What's really amazing is the midway point. You get out there, we have an observation tower, you get to get up to the 50-foot level, and from up there you get a nice, sweeping 360-degree view of the Everglades. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Have a great ride. Hello. Sure thing, ma’am. Ever been here before? Description Narrator: Ate Atema, New York City. A group of four adults. Ate Atema: We did the bike ride today. We rented these bikes and went all the way down to the observation tower. Hunted some alligators. Visually, visually. You don't go ten feet before you run in your first alligator and there are alligators all over the place. And that's, I think, a pretty amazing experience that they’re just right next… And sometimes they're sitting right on the side of the road and, you know, by the time you're done with that, you're very, I don't know if you'd say comfortable, but you're used to seeing alligators and they’re very much, you know, the central part of the experience. Description Narrator: A sign at the visitor center for Shark Valley Tram Tours. A National Park Service Concessioner. Office hours: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The sign also lists prices and departure/return times. A bird skips across a stream, picks a small shell, and smashes it against the ground, trying to open it. Ranger Laurie: Here at Shark Valley, we experience two seasons, the dry and the wet. We are just transitioning out of the dry season now into our wet season. It can get very dry in here. As you see what's around me looks very cracked, almost like a desert. The wet season, then begins usually end of May and into June, all the way through November. Description Narrator: A close-up of a hawk in a tree. Ranger Laurie stands out in the dry sawgrass prairie. Ranger Laurie: During the wet season, we will get 80% of our annual rainfall of about 60 inches. In the wet season in this area where I'm standing right now, I could be standing in three to four feet of water. Here at Shark Valley, you're going to find yourself immersed into a sawgrass prairie. Description Narrator: A panoramic view of the prairie covered in grasses. A park ranger gives a guided tram tour through the sawgrass prairie. Speaker 3: The Shark River slough here is basically the heart of the Everglades because without the water that flows through this area, the southern ends of the park and the Gulf Coast areas would not receive the amounts of water that they need. So, we are going to be making our way down to the observation tower. Description Narrator: Bicyclists ride on the road. River otters play along the rocky banks of the water. Ranger Laurie: While you're out here exploring Shark Valley, you’re going to see different things at different times of the year. Now during the dry season, during the wintertime, this is the time of the year that we get a lot of migratory birds and different animals in here. So, this is the time of year here at Shark Valley when you're going to see more wildlife. During the wet season, because we're full of water, all the wildlife is going to spread out. So, you're not going to see as much wildlife. Speaker 3: And from satellite, you'll see the slough system, which is predominantly sawgrass prairie. And then you'll see these little dots and these little dots are the tree islands. So, if you would like to come with me, we're going to take a short hike into the hammock. If not comfortable, you're more than welcome to stay on the tram. Description Narrator: The visitors follow the ranger as she heads into the hammock. Speaker 3: This is one of the highest places of elevation here at Shark Valley Slough. Many peoples that lived here in the Everglades for thousands of years and for years after, even up to current history, used the hammocks for their homes. Description Narrator: The tram ride continues, stopping at the road to the observation center. Speaker 3: There's also a very nice hammock trail that is just before the tower when you walk in. I'm going to be going down there, it's one of my favorite places. Description Narrator: Wayside sign reads: “Borrow Pit Trail.” Alligators float idly in the water. Speaker 3: Again, make sure you bring all your belongings with you so that the crows don't have a field day with your things, your items. Description Narrator: Two crows land on a bicycle, taking cookies from a package in the basket, before flying off. A nearby sign reads: Do not leave items or bicycles unattended. Visitors walk the paved trails to the observation tower, examining their surroundings. Visitors walk up a long, elevated circular walkway to the tower, pointing out birds and scenery along the way. Tricolored herons perch on the tree branches. Ranger Laurie: From the tower, you're going to be, you know, looking down upon the canal behind it and there's going to be turtles swimming and alligators swimming. Sometimes it depends on the time of the year, like in the springtime, there could be a lot of juvenile birds running around, everything Tri-color Herons, to Night Crown Herons, to Green Herons, to Anhingas. Description Narrator: A photographer uses a tripod to take photos of birds in flight. A bird balances on a swaying tree branch. Visitors look over the edge of the observation tower to the canal below. Ranger Laurie: When you come back on the west side, you're actually going to be following a canal. It's a little more enclosed area. You don't see the tree islands quite as much, but what you will see possibly is more wildlife. It actually offers an extra area of fresh water for our critters to enjoy. You know, just like us, they need fresh water to survive. Description Narrator: Birds nest in trees, alligators sit in the water, a flower blooms by the canal, and a sign reads: Warning! Do not approach wildlife! Never get closer than 15 feet (5 meters) to an alligator. If it hisses or opens its mouth in defense, back away even further. Everglades National Park is a wilderness area. All animals are wild and should be viewed with caution. Feeding alligators is a violation of Federal and Florida state law. When people feed alligators, they lose their fear of humans and become dangerous. Ranger Laurie: Here at Shark Valley, during the wintertime, which is our dry season, we offer many programs for people to enjoy. It could be anything from our two-hour tram tour to a 30-minute shark bite. And then the best program of all is the full moon bike ride that'll get you out here in the Everglades, in the evening. Speaker 3: Thank you very much for coming. I hope you enjoy your time in the park. Description Narrator: Visitors disembark from the tram. An interview with Zack Milliron from Boca Raton, Florida. Speaker 4: Have you been to the Everglades before? Zack Milliron: No. Speaker 4: This is your first time? Zack Milliron: Yep. Speaker 4: How was it? Zack Milliron: It was fun. It's fun. Saw a lot of alligators, and turtles, and birds, and stuff. It's a great park and great area, and it should be taken care of by people because once it's gone, it's gone, and there's nothing you can really do to get it back. You know, you can always see stuff again, that's what's great about the Everglades because it's always changing. So, you'll never see the same thing twice. Description Narrator: An interview with Sumayah Rahman of Coral Springs, Florida and Nausheen Iffath of Chennai, India. Sumayah Rahman: I think the Great Blue Heron is my favorite. I've never seen such a big bird before, and I think it's really cool. Speaker 4: Did you see the one right behind you here? Sumayah Rahman: Oh, yeah, that's what, I think on the way back we spotted that one. Nausheen Iffath: And the best thing that I saw was the view of all green, green, and green from the tower that is there. I would describe it as “Evergreen.” Everglades is evergreen. Ranger Laurie: I chose to work here because you're right there. You can step out the back door of the Visitor Center and you're right there, you're right in the element. You can look out the back window and see the otters crossing the road and the birds flying around. And once I started working, I just fell in love with the Everglades, and that's why I'm here now, because I really love the place. There's so much to learn out here and every day it's different. And that's what makes it so exciting to come to work.
Description Narrator: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park video. Producer, Director, Editor: Jennifer Brown. Executive Producers: Allyson Gantt, Greg Litten, and Alan Scott. Technical Support: Andrew Pringle. Special Thanks: Fabian Kahn. Music performed by: Trip Wamsley, ‘Firm Foundation’ from the It’s Better This Way album, and Jami Sieber, ‘Invisible Wings’ from the Lush Mechanique album. Magnatunes Records, www.magnatunes.com. So, why is it called Shark Valley? Come visit us to find out!
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Informational video about visiting Shark Valley. Everglades Gulf Coast Video Player is loading. Descriptive TranscriptDescription Narrator: A group of alligators thrash into the water. Fish swim around underwater vegetation. A controlled fire burns a habitat. A bird appears in a hole in a dead tree. A ranger gives a guided canoe tour. Aerial footage of Mangroves. A snail glides along a tree branch. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo. Wind blows sand into a shell on a beach. A fiddler crab crawls out of a hole in the sand. The camera pans across a beach and mangroves at low tide. Everglades Gulf Coast. Exploring the Ten Thousand Islands. Close up of a red mangrove tree. A Ranger stands on a narrow boardwalk in a mangrove forest. Speaker 1: Approximately 1.3 million acres of Everglades National Park is wilderness, and very few people really get off the beaten path. But this is a really, great jumping off point for doing that. You can go out. Fishermen love this area. Paddlers also love this area and probably one of my favorite things to do here is paddling. Gulf Coast Visitor Center's really all water accessible, so unless you're going to get out on the water, do a canoe trip, maybe go do some kayaking. It's really difficult to enjoy what the Gulf Coast has to offer. I would definitely recommend planning your trips with the wind, if possible, but definitely with the tides as well. This is all a tidally influenced area. Description Narrator: The park entrance sign: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service logo. Everglades National Park, Gulf Coast. Speaker 1: So, the Gulf Coast Visitor Center is here in Everglades City. It's a lot different than what people really think about when they think of the Everglades, and we're kind of tucked away in the northwest part of the park. Description Narrator: A park ranger hat sits on the front desk in the visitor center with park brochures. Speaker 1: But it's definitely a hidden jewel. There's something out here for everyone. We are in a small town so you can find anything from lodging to restaurants to any of the basic amenities that you will need. We have a lot of different tours that we offer here at Everglades National Park. A lot of different ways to be able to really explore this without spending a whole day or trying to get out in the backcountry. Description Narrator: A sign outside the visitor center lists boat tour information. It'll take you out through the 10,000 islands, out to the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. And people like this one for a lot of reasons. One, just getting out on the water. Sometimes you might see a dolphin, sometimes you might see a manatee. It's a great way to get out and get a sense for the 10,000 islands. Description Narrator: Visitors on a boat tour. A flock of birds fly around the boat, the visitors look around as the guide speaks over an intercom. Speaker 2: Yes...maybe some of the Ruddy Turnstones, there's also some of the Sandwich Terns mixed in here. I brought us back here, if you look out in front of the boat and to the right, you'll see at the top of the trees, there's an osprey nest there. And there is an osprey nestled down in this nest, you may be able to see her head as you go little further forward. Description Narrator: A large osprey nest sits at the top of a tree. Visitors point and take photos. Speaker 2: The female is the primary incubator, but the male, he’ll do all the hunting. Speaker 1: But then there are also several different Ranger-led programs. Usually, we have canoe trips. Description Narrator: A ranger paddling a canoe, talks to visitors. Speaker 3: Everglades City a kind of touched on a little bit, real rich in sort of a history. Yeah, 1947 President Harry Truman stood at this airport and dedicated the park. We'll talk a little bit about that, too, as we go along. Description Narrator: Black-and-white photographs of President Truman speaking at a podium and getting into a vehicle during the park’s dedication. Visitors paddle a canoe between islands of mangroves. Speaker 3: This area here is an estuary. What an estuary is, is we sort of have freshwater that comes in from the north and it mixes with saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico and creates what we call brackish water. So that's sort of what we're going to be exploring today. Speaker 1: Some of the places you can camp, if you go all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico… Description Narrator: Footage of the limestone shore of Jewel Key. Speaker 1: …you can camp here on beaches, but there's also more inland route from the North, the Wilderness Waterway. It's a 99-mile boating trail, or canoe, kayak trail, however you want to do it. Starting here and going all the way to the south end of the park here in Flamingo. Description Narrator: A map follows the Wilderness Waterway from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center to Flamingo. Speaker 1: So, it's a little bit more inland. It opens up to some large bays. But you can stay on different ground sites, but there's also chickee sites, so these chickee sites are elevated over the water, and it's really just a platform to put a tent for the night. Description Narrator: Footage of Watson Place on land and Sweetwater Chickee over the water. The chickee has two wooden platforms raised above the water with roofs and walkways connecting them to a toilet in between. Cameron Gillie, an artist/photographer at Everglades National Park, readies his canoe at the Wilderness Waterway Canoe Launch. Cameron Gillie: I'm in Everglades City, here at the Ranger station. I'm going to be, over the next eleven days, I'm going to Flamingo, which is roughly, I think on the outside, is going to be about 80 miles. It's the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi. It's fantastic to be out there completely immersed and in nature because, I always do my best work when I'm just living it 24 hours a day. But once you get a day's paddle away from Everglades City, you're by yourself for the most part. Description Narrator: Cameron launches his canoe and paddles into the open bay. It's a great experience to do the West Coast, I mean, most people see the Everglades from a road, you know, the park service road coming down, which is pretty, but you don't really get to see what it's like, especially out here. This is a different area and very pretty, and you kind of, you have to get your feet wet to see the Everglades. Description Narrator: Cameron’s canoe floats away from the launch, and he runs into the water to retrieve it. Cameron Gillie: Oh! [laughter] Speaker 1: So really, the first thing you guys have to do for...if you guys want to go into the backcountry on the Wilderness Waterway, definitely, check out our website www.nps.gov/ever, and right there you can find the Wilderness Trip Planner. Description Narrator: A screenshot of the Wilderness Trip Planner, which lists information on seasons, routes, winter hours, permits, etc. Speaker 1: The wilderness trip planner is really what you need to do, the checklist, to really start planning your trip. Description Narrator: The ranger laughs as Cameron’s canoe floats away again. A spider crab underwater. An interview with a park ranger on a boat. Speaker 4: How common is it for boaters to get stuck out here? Speaker 5: I think from the locals who have lived here all their lives, they say nobody doesn't get stuck. So, everyone's gotten stuck at least once. But from what I hear happens a lot. Out here, I tell them to instead of go as fast as you think you can, go slow, and look at what you're getting into. Read your charts. They usually tell you the average water, so if it says one foot, maybe want to go somewhere else. Description Narrator: A view of the GPS screen on a moving boat. Two fishermen in a boat. Speaker 6: Third time out here and just do a little more comfortable about how to get to the fishing places, getting out of the pass and all that. I mean, it's challenging and you can't just rely on maps and everything, so… Speaker 4: What else are you relying on? Speaker 6: A handheld GPS. So, without that, I think it would be pretty tough. Description Narrator: Two men fish from an idling boat. An osprey flies from its nest on top of a sign: Manatee Zone. Slow Speed. Minimum Wake. Visitors paddle a canoe to Sandfly Island. A sign reads: Welcome to Sandfly Island. This 1-mile trail circles the island, leading to sites of historic interest in a semi-tropical forest. As part of a national park, Sandfly Island belongs to the nation. Please take care of your property by not littering, disturbing its features, or collecting souvenirs. Another ranger stands in the water on the mangrove shoreline and walks the inland trail through the forest. Speaker 3: This is Sandfly Island, and we're actually on the other side of Chokoloskee Bay, so on the other side of where the visitor center is. This is the only trail that we have within our district, sort of a walking trail, is on the Sandfly Island. It's about a mile long and it's sort of a loop. Real, rich history out here. This is a shell mound. So, this was actually built up by the Calusa Indians. That's what these shell sites are made of, are individual shells. Description Narrator: The ranger crouches down and picks up shells off the ground. He points to a map of the island.
Speaker 3: You have these oyster shells here, and these Whelk shells that you sort of see scattered about, and the trail itself goes completely around the horseshoe shape itself. And the green here represents high ground. And there's some theories about sort of why the Calusa Indians made this sort of that horseshoe shape. Maybe they use this to actually trap fish as sort of a fishing tool itself, putting up a net during a high tide. And as the tide sort of went out, they trap sort of fish in there as well. Description Narrator: A ranger on the trail picks up a mangrove leaf from the ground. Speaker 1: You see this leaf here. All these trees we see around us are constantly losing these leaves, an acre of mangrove trees are able to lose several tons of leaf per year, and by doing that, they're really starting the food chain from the ground up. These mangrove leaves are eaten up by these micro-organisms. Micro-organisms are eaten by the smaller creatures as you go up the food chain until you get to the larger animals that people really like to see in this area. People like to see the dolphins. People like to see the Ospreys. Occasionally, we'll see a bald eagle and the wading birds as well. Description Narrator: Pelicans sit on top of trees along the water. An underwater view of fish swimming among the mangrove roots. Speaker 1: That's what people really like to see. But sometimes they forget about the smaller life. That's really eating these leaves here. We have crabs, we have snails. We have so many different little life forms. And unless you really take some time out here, it's very difficult to really get a grasp of what this place has to offer. Now, mangrove trees are trees that have adapted an ability to live in this saltwater environment and by living in a saltwater environment, they can do what no other trees can do. They really take over this area. So, all of these 10,000 islands are just filled with these trees. Description Narrator: Aerial footage of islands covered in Mangroves. Speaker 1: Here at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center. You can really come out and see us at any time of the year for the boat tours. Description Narrator: A tour boat pulls into the dock next to a Pelican sitting on a post. Visitors sit at a picnic table at Watson Place campsite. Speaker 1: It's a great way to see the park, but if you guys want to come out, you to do some backcountry campn’ and want to do some fishing. You might want to think twice if you're trying to do it during the summer months. I'd say really, our peak season is late November and then into early April. Description Narrator: A turtle crawls through the forest. A horseshoe crab digs down into the muddy sand. A Fiddler crab craws out of the sand. Rangers crouch down, looking at crabs in the sand. A ranger walks down a boardwalk trail. A black-and-white photo by Cameron Gillie titled Wilderness Waterway, shows a mangrove tree surrounded by mud at low tide. A Fiddler crab on a beach waves its big claw.
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park video. Featuring: Ranger Kent Melchiors, Ranger Brendan Ward, and Ranger Meredith Riester. Cameron Gillie. www.CameronGillie.com Producer, Director, Editor: Jennifer Brown. Executive Producers: Allyson Gantt, Greg Litten, Alan Scott. Music performed by: General Fuzz, ‘Four Prophets’ from the Soulful Filling album, and Jami Sieber, ‘Invisible Wings’ from the Lush Mechanique album, Magnatunes Records, www.magnatunes.com.
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Informational video about exploring the Everglades Gulf Coast and Ten Thousand Islands. At the End of the Road: Flamingo Video Player is loading. Descriptive TranscriptDescription Narrator: A group of alligators thrash into the water. Fish swim around underwater vegetation. A controlled fire burns a habitat. A bird appears in a hole in a dead tree. A ranger gives a guided canoe tour. Aerial footage of Mangroves. A snail glides along a tree branch. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo. At the End of the Road: Flamingo. The front of a canoe moves through a mangrove tunnel. A Roseate Spoonbill searches in shallow water for food with its wide, spoon-shaped bill. Speaker 1: Right now, we're in a place called Snake Bight, and Snake Bight is a shallow bay. It's part of much larger Florida Bay, and this is all in the southern portion of Everglades National Park. It's really not that common for a visitor to see a flamingo nowadays because it usually takes some work. Description Narrator: A Reddish Egret walks in shallow water along the mangrove shoreline. Speaker 1: Typically, they're going to be a long ways away. They're going to be out in a place like this, out in Snake Bight, which requires a long paddle or a hike down a trail to get to. And even if you go to that effort to look for flamingos, you may not see any. Description Narrator: The park ranger sits in a canoe out on the water. Speaker 1: The last time that I saw a wild flamingo was about ten minutes ago. We were paddling out here in the canoe. We saw a flock of five flamingos. Description Narrator: A flock of Sandpipers fly across the shore covered with dead seagrass. Speaker 1: You really have to come to Flamingo to see certain things that you may not easily see elsewhere in the park. Flamingo lies at the end of the Main Park Road in Everglades National Park. You have to drive about 40 miles through Pine Forest, Cypress Swamps, Sawgrass Marsh, and then eventually into Mangrove Swamp to get to Flamingo itself. Description Narrator: Views of the different habitats and park signs. Speaker 1: As you drive your car down the road, there are a lot of things that you can see, including Hell's Bay and Noble Hammock. A little further down is West Lake, as you continue down, there will be some ponds. Mrazek Pond, Coot Bay can be good places to look for wildlife. Hiking trails begin along the Main Park Road in that area as well. Snake Bight Trail, Rowdy Bend Trail, Christian Point Trail. Description Narrator: A map of Flamingo Hiking Trails has a warning about mosquitoes. An osprey sits with its offspring in a nest atop a dead palm tree. Speaker 1: And then eventually, you will end up at Flamingo and at the Flamingo Visitor Center in the Marina. The Flamingo Visitor Center is a really good place to start out in Flamingo, to learn about what you can do here: different kinds of activities, ranger-guided programs, backcountry camping, backcountry permits, canoe and hiking routes, and all of the other opportunities that you can experience here at Flamingo. Description Narrator: Views of the Flamingo Visitor Center building. Speaker 1: It's also a great place to learn about some of the recent wildlife sightings, [a phone rings] various conditions, weather conditions, tide conditions. Description Narrator: Whiteboards outside the visitor center list wildlife sightings, weather, and tides. A ranger answers a phone call in the Flamingo Visitor Center. Andy: Thank you for calling Flamingo Visitor Center, this is Andy. How may I help you? Description Narrator: Andy speaks to a visitor. Andy: It makes it nice when you think, you know, you're only an hour away from one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country. And you see the stars, it's quiet. Speaker 2: It is, yes. Andy: So, you can get away, but still be close to stuff, so. Speaker 2: Yea, this is nice. Andy: That's why I like Flamingo, is it's quiet. Description Narrator: The ranger in a canoe out on the water. Speaker 1: Flamingo is a jumping off point to explore one of the biggest wilderness areas in the United States, and certainly the biggest wilderness area east of the Rocky Mountains, and that includes Florida Bay and the mangrove backcountry. And a good example of that would be the Wilderness Waterway. Description Narrator: The Wilderness Trip Planner flyer with a map of the Wilderness Waterway. Speaker 1: The Wilderness Waterway is a 99-mile canoe, kayak, and boat route that leads from Flamingo all the way to Everglades City on the Gulf Coast to the northwest of here. Speaker 3: Can I get some information about a boat ride? Speaker 4: Boat ride!? Boat rides are all taken care of at the green building right next to the gas pumps right across the parking lot. Speaker 3: Oh, okay. Description Narrator: An employee at the boat rental shop speaks out the window. Speaker 4: We rent different kinds of canoes, which is family canoes, and then you have your tandem canoes. And then we have kayaks that are tandem and singles also. We rent skiff boats, and they take that for four hours or eight hours, all day. We offer the backcountry boat tour, and we have the Florida Bay Boat tour. Description Narrator: Two people in a canoe in the canal. A skiff motors by. A boat tour leaves the dock as a ranger speaks over the intercom. Speaker 5: We are going to start our cruise right here guys on the right side of the vessel. ...Along the shoreline, well, we are going to back up here a little bit. Can't stay here too long. What we have here is an American Saltwater crocodile right here in Flamingo. Description Narrator: Crocodiles sleep on branches and rocks along the water. Speaker 1: For those folks that want to do a canoe trip around Flamingo, you can bring your own canoe or kayak. There are canoe rentals at the marina. We have ranger-guided canoe trips. Description Narrator: At Nine-Mile Pond, a ranger speaks to a group of visitors before they get on the water. Canoes are lined up along the shoreline. They load the canoes and launch into the water. Speaker 6: We have American Crocodiles and American Alligators. This guy's a crocodile. So, I’d like to welcome all of you. Thanks for joining me this morning. What we’ll be paddling today will be an ecotone, two habitats colliding. So, we'll get to see the edge in between the red mangrove forested area and freshwater marl prairie. There's a turtle. Looks like some kind of soft shell right down low. Speaker 7: There's a turtle right there, he said. Description Narrator: The ranger and visitors paddle through mangrove tunnels and open water with grass. Speaker 6: This is kind of the transition zone: we have, you know, the red mangroves here and then over off in the distance, we have the freshwater marl prairie. Description Narrator: A White Ibis flies from a tree. Speaker 1: This is a great place for birds. Description Narrator: A National Park Service Bird Checklist has an illustration of various birds found in the park. Speaker 1: A lot of birds start coming in here in the winter months, so say from about December through around March into April. That's a good time to come for birds. Description Narrator: Wood Storks flying and sitting in trees. A power boat cruises by. A group of people fish from a flats boat in shallow water with wading birds standing nearby. Speaker 1: The Flamingo area is considered world class fishing. People come here to catch all kinds of fish: tarpon, snook, redfish, sea trout, snapper, black drum, sharks, you name it. There are so many different kinds of fish out here. It's an exciting place that way. And you can go almost anywhere around Flamingo, whether it be out here in a place like Snake Bight, in other parts of Florida Bay, or into the mangrove backcountry, there are fish everywhere you go. Description Narrator: A fish leaps out of the water. An osprey dives into the water and flies away with a fish. Speaker 1: We always like to share with visitors different safety considerations that they need to take into account, if they're going to do a paddling trip, whether it be a short or long trip into the Everglades and things to be aware of are changing tides, wind conditions, severe weather, the sun. We always recommend people bring sun protection, sunglasses, sunscreen, bring plenty of water. It's always good to be prepared when you're going to go out into the backcountry. The main services that are available at Flamingo include the visitor center. Description Narrator: A ranger speaks to visitors in the shade of a tree with Florida Bay in the background. Speaker 1: They provide ranger-guided programs, quite a variety of them. Speaker 7: In 1960, Hurricane Donna hit this place. Hurricane Donna had a twelve-foot storm surge. The waves were crashing through the windows out there. Speaker 1: There's a campground at Flamingo and also a marina. And at the marina there’s canoe rentals, boat rentals, boat tours, a small convenience store, gas, bicycle rentals, restrooms. Description Narrator: A Least Sandpiper searches for food along the shore. Speaker 1: I think what I appreciate most about the nature of this area, there's two things, I appreciate the fact that there are all kinds of species here. Description Narrator: A Semipalmated Plover walks along the sand. Speaker 1: Hundreds of different kinds of plants and animals, birds, fish, insects. You can spend your life, and numerous lifetimes, studying all of this life here, and marveling at it, and discovering it. Description Narrator: A Triangle cactus grows in the shade. A close-up of grasses and succulent vegetation. Speaker 1: But I also like the fact that it has a tropical character to it. So, a lot of this life is from the Caribbean. You won't find it anywhere else in the country, but right here at the southern tip of Florida, and Flamingo is a great showcase for that Caribbean life. Description Narrator: West Indian Manatees breach the surface of the water. Speaker 1: Animals like crocodiles, White-crowned pigeons. A variety of different kinds of plants and trees: Orchids, bromeliads, weird trees with funny names like Gumbo Limbo and Manchineel. So again, it's just all of these different things that you can experience here in terms of the natural history, just goes on and on. Description Narrator: A Brown Anole lizard sits on a tree leaf. A Land Crab emerges from the sand. Speaker 1: Where are the flamingos? That’s too bad. Description Narrator: The ranger looks for flamingos with his binoculars. Text – Visit the park website for more information on Flamingo trails and online brochures! Speaker 1: But it was great to see them anyway.
Description Narrator: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park video. Producer, Director, Editor: Jennifer Brown. Executive Producers: Allyson Gantt, Greg Litten, Alan Scott. Technical Support: Andrew Pringle. Music performed by: Laura Inserra, ‘One Day’ from the Hang album and Jami Sieber, ‘Invisible Wings’ from the Lush Mechanique album, Magnatunes Records, www.magnatunes.com.
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Informational video about visiting Flamingo. If you are having viewing problems, you can watch these on the We want your feedback! Click here to submit feedback on Everglades National Park videos.
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Last updated: March 5, 2025