Buttonwood and Bear Lake Canals - Everglades National Park

A gravel road parallels the Buttonwood Canal north from the Flamingo Visitor Center.  During our early February, 2013, trip to Everglades National Park, we explored the road and found very few locations to get good views of the canal until we came to the end of the road.  Here, a short trail to the right leads to the Buttonwood Canal while a slightly longer trail to the left leads to the Bear Lake Canal.  The trail between the two canals is also a portage of about 250 yards. The Bear Lake Canal has a small dock that can be used to launch canoes or kayaks.  A 1.6 mile walking trail follows the Bear Lake Canal canoe trail to Bear Lake.  Even in the winter dry season, there were too many mosquitoes for us to attempt the hike.

Bear Lake Canal dock

Bear Lake Canal

Looking across Buttonwood Canal

Looking north up the Buttonwood Canal

The park entrance fee is $10 per vehicle for seven consecutive days.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm.

Flamingo Visitor Center - Everglades National Park

Our early February, 2013, trip to the Everglades included a stop at the Flamingo Visitor Center at Florida Bay.  The visitor center is located up a steep ramp on the second floor of the left pink building.  The right building houses the Buttonwood Cafe in temporary quarters in a screened enclosure on the ground floor.  The menu is very limited as the kitchen is a fifth wheel trailer parked beside the enclosed dining area.  In addition, there was a lodge nearby with about 100 rooms until hurricanes Katrina and Wilma struck in 2005.  While plans are being considered to rebuild a lodge, no construction has been authorized.  There is a campground with 278 sites, of which 41 have electrical hookups.  In addition, there is a small picnic area.  Just to the east of the visitor center is a full service marina with houseboat, canoe, kayak and bicycle rentals.  In addition, boat tours of Florida Bay or the Buttonwood Canal are also available. 

Former location of Buttonwood Cafe

Sea wall at Flamingo Visitor Center

Florida Bay from the sea wall

A mangrove hammock is creating a new key
beyond a sand bar visible at low tide

Birds looking to feast on the sand bar

An osprey nest tops the park's radio tower

The park entrance fee is $10 per vehicle for seven consecutive days.
The park website is http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm.

Anhinga Trail - Everglades National Park

During our early February 2013 visit to the Everglades, we strolled along the three-quarter mile roundtrip Anhinga Trail.  The trail starts as a paved trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Center, but changes to a boardwalk loop over Taylor Slough near its southern end.  We saw Anhingas as shown above, alligators, turtles, fish and numerous birds along or in the water.  If you want to see wildlife in the Everglades, this is the place to be during the dry season.  

While we didn't have any problems, please be aware that vultures are attracted to rubber on vehicles and have caused severe damage to windshields, sun roofs and wipers.  Also note that vultures are a federally protected migratory species.  The visitor center has a limited number of tarps to strap over your vehicle in an effort to prevent damage.

Taylor Slough

Great Blue Heron

Gar

Alligator sunning in the middle of the slough

Another alligator sunning on the shore

Wood Stork

Tricolored Heron

Alligator sunning beside the trail

Great Egret

Over a dozen of nearly 30 alligators sunning near the end of the boardwalk

Turtle

Alligator lurking under the pond apple tree
(also known as a corkwood tree)

Boardwalk along Taylor Slough

Taylor Slough, part of the River of Grass

Royal Palms

The $10 entrance fee per vehicle is valid for seven days.
The park website is http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm.

Bike Hike Long Pine Key - Everglades National Park

In planning our early February 2013 trip, we decided to sign up for the ranger-guided Bike Hike from Long Pine Key.  There is no additional fee for this activity beyond the $10 / 7-day entrance fee.  The park provides bicycles, helmets, and water or you can bring your own.  When we arrived, we found Ranger Leon would be our guide.  We had met him the day before at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center where he provided some very useful tips on experiencing the park.  The turnoff to the Long Pine Key picnic area and campground is about 4½ miles past the Visitor Center.  Ranger Leon noted that everyone arrived early and commented that that rarely happens and that he often has to omit some of the details of his explanations in order to make-up time.  The ranger began the trip with a safety message before we rode back up the road to the trailhead.  The trail was actually a single lane road on bare ground.  Often that meant the underlying limestone bedrock was the surface.  This created a very bumpy ride if we traveled at a significant speed.  The trip started at 9 AM and we were back around 11:30 after biking about 3.2 miles and walking about 250 yards.  

Lake at Long Pine Key campground

Ranger Leon talked about the need to understand the big picture of the Everglades before he scaled it down almost to the level of individual plants.  The Everglades was called a “River of Grass” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her 1947 book of the same name.  Starting at the shore of Lake Okeechobee, the river only drops about 14 feet over more than 100 miles on its way to Florida Bay.  During the wet season, the river can expand to a width of 60 miles.  Very small elevation changes of only inches to a couple of feet can make the difference between dominant species of pine, cypress, palm, or sawgrass in a particular location.  During the dry season or winter in the rest of the country, the river narrows to a series of sloughs.  This tends to concentrate the wildlife around any wet or damp depressions.  The length of time each year that a particular area is underwater also determines the type of vegetation that dominates the area.  

This limestone depression was full of water only a week before our visit

People have been draining and altering the South Florida landscape for over 100 years, reducing the size of the Everglades to less than 30% of its previous area.  All surface water flows outside the National Park areas are now managed by the South Florida Water Management District.

Long Pine Key is one of the higher areas that seldom floods, thus allowing a pine forest to develop.  Heading down the trail, our elevation soon dropped enough to place us in a palm forest that included sable palm, silver palm and saw palmetto.  Further along, we crossed a plain of sawgrass and stopped at a depression in the limestone that until only a week or so before had been an oasis for wildlife.  We then crossed another ridge in this ridge and valley system before dropping down to another dry slough.  Here we left the bikes on the road and followed a faint trail on foot to a willow hammock.  Here we examined the elevation and the vegetation on an even smaller scale from Ranger Leon's original big picture.

Sawgrass yields to pine trees as the elevation rises

Dead portion of saw palmetto shows extent of storm surge

Saw palmetto and pine in the "highlands"

Sawgrass and pine trees

Willow hammock

Wetland even in the dry season

Other trees compete with the willows

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm.

Everglades National Park - Ernest Coe Visitor Center

In early February, 2013, we visited the Everglades National Park.  Our first stop was at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center near Homestead, Florida.  The visitor center has a display area, theater, gift shop and helpful rangers and volunteers.  The movie, as usual, was an excellent depiction of the park.

Outside the east end of the visitor center is a man-made pond created during construction to raise the building foundations above the surrounding area.  A second building with park offices is behind the visitor center.

Just beyond the visitor center is the fee collection area.  The fee is $10 per vehicle and is good for seven consecutive days.

Visitor Center entrance

Office Building

Borrow pit with agricultural fire on the horizon

Great Egret

Aquatic vegetation

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm.

Kennedy Space Center - Apollo / Saturn V Center

Our second stop on the Kennedy Space Center bus tour in early February, 2013, was the Apollo / Saturn V Center.  Entering the center, we were ushered into grandstand type seating behind the actual Apollo firing room consoles and witnessed a launch countdown.  The firing room exit led us to the huge exhibition hall that houses a complete Saturn V rocket mounted horizontally along the center of the hall.

Looking down the exhibit hall from the first stage
toward the command module

The Saturn V rocket is separated into its various stages for display.  With the Apollo capsule, the complete Saturn V rocket was 363 feet tall with a diameter of 33 feet at the base, not counting the fins.  When fully loaded with fuel, the rocket weighed 6.5 million pounds and was capable of delivering a 260,000 payload into low earth orbit.  The rocket consisted of three stages plus the instrument unit.  The S-IC first stage consisted of five F-1 engines fueled by RP-1 rocket fuel with liquid oxygen (LOx) as an oxidizer.  RP-1 is a highly refined form of kerosene.  Each F-1 engine had a thrust of 1.5 million pounds or more than the three shuttle main engines combined.

The five F-1 engines of the Saturn V first stage

The S-II second stage consisted of five J-2 engines fueled by liquid hydrogen and LOx.  Each J-2 engine had a thrust of 232,250 pounds in a vacuum or 109,302 pounds at sea level.  

The five J-2 engines of the second stage
(note the golden frame at the top of the first stage
is only a museum mount and not flight hardware)

Instrument Unit

The S-IVB third stage consisted of one J-2 engine.  Mounted to the top of third stage was the tapered enclosure for the Lunar Module (LM).

The single J-2 engine of the third stage

The Command/Service Module used an AJ10-137 engine using Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer.  

Command / Service Module (CSM)

The Command Module is the only portion of the Apollo / Saturn designed to return to the earth.  It was only 10.6 feet tall and 12.8 feet in diameter and weighed 12,250 pounds.

Apollo 14 Command Module Kitty Hawk

Lunar Module

Lunar Module interior

Lunar Rover

Lunar Tool Cart

Alan Shepard's Apollo 14 spacesuit

Moon Rock

Taking a cue from Disney World just up the road, the exit from the exhibit hall to the bus loading area is through a large gift shop.  Returning to the visitor center complex, the bus driver pointed out several alligators near the road.  At the visitor center, we had time to watch "Hubble 3-D" an excellent IMAX® movie about the final repair mission to the venerable space telescope.

Admission for one day at the Visitor Center and two days at the Astronaut Hall of Fame is $50 for an adult and $40 for children ages 3 through 11.  Admission includes the bus tour and both IMAX® movies.  Parking is an additional $10 per automobile or motorcycle and $15 per motor home.

The Space Center website is http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com.