From the Land of 10,000 Lakes to the Land of 10,000 Islands.  We’re in the Everglades now.  Our first outing was to take an Everglades National Park Boat Tour.  This narrated 1.5 hour tour took us out through the mangroves.

Everglades National Park Boat Tour

Bottle Nose Dolphins came to say hello.  They liked to play around the boat.  Some even jumped out of the water and did flips for us.

Bottle Nose Dolphins

After that we stopped at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk.  We were greeted by a large crane who didn’t seem bothered at all by the cars.

Crane

Our first alligator sighting of the year… this big fella was chillin’ by the edge of a pond at one end of the parking lot.  They are wild and native to the area so are not contained behind a fence like in a zoo so they can be anywhere.

Alligator

The boardwalk led us about a half mile into the cypress swamp where we saw a few baby-sized alligators, some birds, and squirrels.  Signs point out different kinds of vegetation. Temps got up to 80F and it was humid all day.

Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

Baby Alligator

We are in Collier-Seminole State Park in Southwest Florida. Internet service here is slow.  I’ll try to blog daily but if it gets too difficult I will not.

• Gasoline Expense:   none
• Lodging:                    $ 24
• Tour Boat:                $ 64
• Boardwalk:                free