Fact 1: The best time to visit is the dry season.
Known in other places as winter, the dry season in the Everglades runs from November to April, when mosquito swarms, water levels, and temperatures are down. The dry season is also the park’s busiest time for the same reasons, but a few more people is a small price to pay to avoid the extreme heat and humidity of summer.
Dry season temps average highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid-50s (25 and 12 Celsius), with lower humidity than in the wet season. Mosquitos persist year-round, but in smaller numbers. Still bring your bug spray.
Fact 2: The easiest spot to see manatees is...
One of the main goals of most wildlife enthusiasts visiting the Everglades is to spot a manatee. An employee at the park’s marina in Flamingo let me in on a secret–manatees hang out in the marina most mornings. They love to lap up the fresh water that rains down when employees spray the rental boats clean.
Grab breakfast at the nearby food truck, snag a bench, and wait for the show. I watched eight or nine of the massive creatures for over an hour, rolling over one another, snuffling with their soft snouts just a few feet below me. If you want to get close enough to manatees to count the scars on their backs without even paying for a boat trip, breakfast at the Flamingo marina.
Fact 3: The easiest spot to see water birds is...
Another great wildlife spot that’s easy to access is Eco Pond. The pond is just off the main road, the loop trail around it only half a mile (0.8 km).
The draw here is birds, water birds to be precise. Roseate spoonbills frequent the spot and so do other shore birds, like herons and black-necked stilts. Pop over to the pond, a few feet from the road, in the mornings; you never know what birds you might spot.
(And if you want to head out for a longer hike, check out the Snake Bight trail, another excellent birding location near Flamingo.)
Fact 4: There are few flamingos in Flamingo.
One bird you will rarely spy at Eco Pond or anywhere else in Flamingo is the one the place is named for. Once common in the area, flamingos were extirpated (made extinct in a region) in southern Florida during the plume trade of the late 1800s. At least that was the common belief–recent sightings suggest that some flamingos blown in by Hurricane Idalia in 2023 may be settling in, causing many to hope that the birds could be making a permanent return to the Everglades and southern Florida.
Fact 5: There are anhingas on the Anhinga Trail.
Anhingas, sometimes called snakebirds for the way they swim, with just their long, lanky necks above the water, frequent the Anhinga trail, located at Royal Palm just past the main park entrance. These charismatic birds nest along the trail, and in the dry season you can spy juveniles soaking in the sun.
The boardwalks and wetlands of this trail make it a scenic favorite as well, and it’s an easy, flat walk (0.8 miles, 1.3 km). Keep an eye out for alligators or other water-loving birds, like the brilliantly shaded purple gallinule.
Fact 6: There are trees in the Everglades.
The Everglades is known for its water and wetlands, but the park contains a variety of habitats. Hardwood hammocks provide habitat for massive mahoganies and gumbo-limbo trees. The pinelands, or pine rocklands, is a forest ecosystem dominated by tall slash pine trees. Long Pine Key campground is nestled in such a forest, where the trees provide welcome shade and privacy.
Fact 7: The park has alligators and crocodiles.
South Florida is the only place inhabited by both American alligators and American crocodiles. Alligators are a keystone species of the Everglades, though this is the southern extent of their range. They reside in areas of freshwater, as they can’t secrete salt through specialized glands the way that crocodiles can.
Crocodiles are at the top of their range in the Everglades and are a rarer sight in the park than alligators. Look for them skulking at the edges of salty waters, like when you are breakfasting with manatees at the Flamingo Marina.
Fact 8: The park is best seen from the water.
Since the Everglades are mostly water, some form of boat trip is a must while there. There are motorized boat tours at the Gulf Coast and Flamingo areas of the park. These tours are worth their not-exorbitant cost and a great way to see some of the Ten Thousand Islands area (Gulf Coast) or coastal mangrove swamps (Flamingo).
Kayaking or canoeing are also popular, and an excellent way to see more of the backcountry (not near a road) parts of the park. There are several paddling trails, some with elevated chickees where you can spend the night.
Fact 9: The park is often battered by storms.
When I last visited the Everglades, two of its visitor centers were inaccessible due to recent hurricane damage. This region is subject to the increases in extreme weather and rising sea levels caused by climate change.
But the storms here also contribute to the park’s biodiversity, opening up new habitat for plants and wildlife. If you visit, look for the ways that the park and its denizens rebound after upheaval.
Fact 10: The Everglades was once almost dry.
For over a hundred years, humans drained the Everglades, constructing dams, canals, levees, and floodgates to divert its fresh water. Since the park was established in 1947, restoration efforts have attempted to restore the water and its natural flow. The success of these efforts is evident everywhere you look; today the Everglades is a thriving wetland full of native water-loving plants and wildlife.
Bonus Fact: Big Cypress National Preserve is awesome.
A little north of the Everglades is Big Cypress, the United State’s first national preserve. It was established to protect the waters that flow south into the Everglades. At over 700,000 acres, Big Cypress is bigger than Rhode Island and about half the size of the Everglades itself.
Big Cypress is more remote than the Everglades and less busy, but the wildlife viewing is nearly as spectacular. Alligators lounge in the sun along a boardwalk outside the Oasis Visitor Center, and the scenic Loop Road is a must-drive, where wading birds and alligators line the road and its swamps in the dry season.
*This essay was updated 9/26/2024 with new info about flamingos.