Everglades, Florida: Part Two - April 26th to 29th, 2023
On our way down to the Florida Keys, we spent four nights at the Flamingo Campground inside Everglades National Park (Everglades National Park, Florida - April 13th to 17th). Since we planned on stopping in the Everglades again on our way back from the Keys, we left the Long Pine Key area of the Everglades for our second visit. This post covers what we skipped the first time.
Wednesday we drove from Leo’s Campground in Key West up to Encore Miami Everglades RV Resort. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we did enjoy the views from all of the bridges we crossed along the keys. Our original plan for the following four nights was to stay in Long Pine Key Campground in Everglades National Park, but we changed our minds. After our first night’s experience in Flamingo Campground, when we slept with the air conditioner off and the windows open which let in the no-see-ums that bit us up all night, we decided we better have at least electrical hookups.
We didn’t want to stay at Flamingo again, because we wanted to also visit Biscayne National Park during our stay and the Flamingo Campground would add another hour and a half of driving to our day, since it is at least 45 minutes from the Everglades entrance. We tried getting into Larry & Penny Thompson Park Campground, a county park. However, they didn’t have any openings until July. So we ended up at yet another Thousand Trails campground. If we had known ahead of time that we would be staying at two Thousand Trails campgrounds, we would have joined and saved a little money, even after adding the Trails Connection for the Encore campgrounds. Oh well, you live and learn.
Encore Miami Everglades RV Resort is not as nice as Encore Fiesta Key Resort that we visited the previous week (Fiesta Key, Florida - April 18th to 22nd, 2023), but it was still nice. Miami Everglades is a former KOA Campground, in a quiet location among farmland and nurseries. In addition to the normal KOA amenities, there is a walking/biking path circling the campground, almost a mile in length. The path is shaded for the most part, so it provided a nice way to get out and stretch our legs. Quite a variety of lizards scurried across the path along our way, providing us with some entertainment.
We noticed that our water pump was not turning off. The pump was not actually running all the time, but we like to turn it off via one of the switches so the pump does not have power when we don’t need it. That way, if a faucet is accidentally bumped, or we develop a leak in one of the water lines, Red Tail does not get flooded while we are away from the rig. We spent some time trying to pinpoint the issue. We removed the switches, then disconnected the switch input to the water pump controller. The controller should toggle the water pump on and off whenever a ground pulse is received on the switch input.
The tricky part was accessing a ground signal to test pulsing the switch input. We pulled the wire off the ground terminal of the controller, inserted our own wire into the connector of the ground wire, and added another wire which we could simultaneously touch the ground and switch terminals together. The power to the water pump remained on. OK, the issue was not any of the switches. Then we pulled the wire from the pump terminal of the controller, this is the wire that the controller toggles on and off. After pulling the pump wire, the water pump light in the water compartment turned off, indicating the pump no longer had power. That meant the issue was not between the controller and the water pump. That left the water pump controller as the issue. We’ll order a replacement. In the meantime, we can live with the water pump always being on. We’ll just be careful to check all the faucets before leaving the rig and before going to bed.
Thursday we drove over to Everglades National Park to check out the trails in the Long Pine Key area. We purposely saved those for when we thought we would be camping in that area. However, Encore Miami Everglades RV Resort is only a 30 minute drive from the Everglades National Park entrance.
We started at the Royal Palm Visitor Center and walked the Anhinga Trail. This is mainly a boardwalk in exposed prairie with a lot of water. Lily pads floated on the clear water. Why was the water so clear here? No mangrove trees grow in this area to add their tannins to the water. The clear water means you can see a variety of fish and turtles in the water, and yes, alligators. The water here is fresher than the water down near Flamingo, so there are alligators instead of crocodiles. There are also a variety of birds, including the anhinga. The anhinga is similar to a cormorant, but with beautiful white markings on its back and wings. As far as seeing a lot of wildlife, the Anhinga Trail was our favorite trail in the park.
After eating our lunch, we walked the other trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Center, the Gumbo Limbo Trail. It is a shaded trail through the woods. The Gumbo Limbo is a tree with peeling red bark. In the past, its wood has been used to carve carousel horses. We didn’t see as much wildlife on this trail except for lizards and mosquitos.
From there we drove over to the Long Pine Key Campground and picnic area to check out what we were missing by not staying there. We parked over in the picnic area and walked along the shoreline around the lake, which brought us over to the campground and amphitheater. There were a couple of alligators out in the lake. The campground looked nice, with shaded, well-spaced sites. However, we felt we made the right choice by cancelling. Even if we had a generator so that we could run our air conditioner during the day, we would have to turn off the generator during quiet hours at night, and open our windows. Keith was concerned about being too hot while Ann was more concerned about letting the no-see-ums in through our screens.
Just a little further down the park road is the Pinelands Trail. This is a short boardwalk through the trees, with lots of bugs. One of the most notable features along this trail are the solution holes. Solution holes are created in the limestone by the acid of the decaying vegetation dissolving the limestone. The holes can hold water during the dry season, providing a refuge for wildlife.
The last trail we walked was the Pa-hay-okee Overlook. This trail is less than a quarter of a mile long, but goes through three very distinct eco-systems. First is a hardwood hammock, followed by a cypress grove, then it opens up to a view of the freshwater marl prairie along with some solution holes. Pa-hay-okee is a Seminole phrase meaning grassy waters.
That completed the trails in the area that the park ranger recommended when we first arrived in the Everglades a week prior. Had we stayed at the Long Pine Key Campground, we might have hiked a longer trail and/or ridden our bikes on the Long Pine Key Nature Trail. However, we felt we got a good sampling of what the Everglades has to offer.
On our way back to Encore Miami Everglades, we stopped again at Robert is Here Fruit Stand. Ann needed more fruit for breakfast. She wanted to buy a jackfruit, but they were way too large for the amount of space we have to store it. Instead, we opted for a small container of already cut jackfruit along with a container of pineapple. Of course, we also had a couple of fruit milkshakes while we were there. Keith went with a pineapple this time, while Ann combined papaya, passion fruit, and mango. They were just as delicious as the milkshakes we got during our first visit.
Friday we explored Biscayne National Park. We’ll cover that in our next blog post.
Saturday was a day to chill. Laundry was our morning activity. For lunch, we drove into Homestead and ate at Yardie Spice. It is a little hole in the wall restaurant that Captain Frank recommended to us during our Biscayne National Park sailing tour the day before. Yardie Spice serves Jamaican and Haitian food. The place did not disappoint. We have never really experienced Jamaican or Haitian cuisine before, so this was a real treat. The friendly staff guided us through the menu and offered their recommendations.
To drink, we both had mixed fruit. If we remember correctly, it was a mixture of mango, passion fruit, turmeric, honey, ginger root, and lime. Very tasty. Keith went with a Haitian dish called Griot. It was tasty fried pork. Ann had a Jamaican dish, curry goat. Both were served with a small salad, rice, and fried plantains. We sampled each other’s entrees and we both agreed that we liked the curry goat the best, although both of them were wonderful.
As we sat there enjoying our delicious meals, we eyed a couple of cakes that were under glass on top of the counter. Even after we were informed that it was coconut cake, we ordered two slices to go despite not being fans of coconut. We were so glad we did. The cake tasted as good as it looked. It was a moist cake, similar to pound cake, covered with a sweet coconut glaze. The coconut was very subtle, and not overwhelming.
Back at the campground, we stayed cool inside Red Tail. When we wanted a break, we would talk a stroll on the shaded path that encircled the campground. There was a variety of lizards along the path. Some types of lizards would run upright on their hind legs. Ann made a game out of trying to catch a photo or video of them on their hind legs, but she lost the game. Whenever she would stop and look at the lizard, it would go back down on all fours and remain motionless until she and her camera lens looked away.
A man spotted Ann with her camera and wanted to show off his prize mastodon tooth. She obliged and took a picture of him and his tooth. Unfortunately, she didn’t ask him for his name and wishes she remembered the story he told her about how he found the tooth.
Keith took the time to reinstall the stretch net across the front of the dinette bench. The clamps we originally used to attache it were not very strong and broke almost immediately. We ordered strong clamps online and received those a while ago, but then we needed to get screws with larger heads, which we bought while we were in Key West. The net holds our shower flip flops and our warm slippers. The new clamps should do much better.
So many people visit Everglades National Park and only spend one day inside the park. There is such a variety of things to see in the Everglades that it deserves several days. We are so glad we went back a second time. It was such a different experience from the first time we were there.
Check out our related video: Everglades, Florida Part Two
(Ann)