I did stay back at Monument Lake Campground in the Big Cypress where I have been the past 2 nights, so after my visit to Shark Valley I decided to have an easy afternoon, so Casey and I went back and I wrote out some post cards I purchased at the Miccosukee Indian General Store the later we drove to the post office to mail them! Yes there is a post office in the Big Cypress Preserve.
And it just happens to be the smallest US post Office in the nation!! Ochopee zip 34141.
My post cards should have the famous Ochopee post mark!
On the way past Shark Valley to the rest of the Everglades via roads you must pass through 2 towns...Homestead and Florida City. Many of the visitors wanted to do an airboat ride I'm not really into that kind of thing...there are numerous places to do the airboat rides along this road, Hwy 41 the Tamiami Trail , I like to just go at my own pace.
And you have to stop at Robert is Here! Its a fun fruit and veggie market. All kinds of seasonal foods, and some imported stuff too...
I got a very sweet mango, and Robert himself cut it up for me! I got a couple tomatoes too. Its def a fun stop. I was very tempted to get one of these coconut heads...
The coco frio is like a chilled drink, they bore a hole for you and you turn that baby up and enjoy a fresh chilled coconut milk! So Shark Valley is really way over by the boundary of Big Cypress..I suggest you look at the Everglades Map, and you see how its laid out there are only a few roads...Then its a bit of a drive to get to the rest of the park. I took hwy 9336 out of Homestead and the first thing in the park is the Ernest Coe visitors Center. The Coe V.C. is nice and I got my passport stamped with the Centinnel stamp the NPS is 100 years old this year and the Everglades Stamp also. They have a nice but small Gift shop My next stop was the Anhinga trail which is a short boardwalk. 
The water was very clear and blue here..lots of lily pads with longggg stems you can see right down to the bottom where the stems are rooted.
One great thing I saw on the anhinga trail was this purple gallinule he was walking around on these big pads on top of the water...
Only saw the one tho...and just off the boardwalk was yet another alligator! He was being bothered by people wanting selfies with an alligator...I really did NOT like that. If the gator should decide to strike out HE would pay the price for these stupid tourists. Some got much closer than this fellow and some crouched down low in order to get the gator right behind them...I gave the crowd and the gator a wide berth..
Here is a zoom on this gator he was very alert...
On the Gumbo Limbo trail I found this really tall palm could be a royal palm so many kinds of Palm and I did not pay good attention to the names...
And here is a cool web in just the right light...
My next stop was at the Pa hay okee boardwalk...A beautiful overlook of the saw grass marsh.
I met these 3 Britts with some really awesome lenses, They had no tripods so holding them steady was a challenge...
we all had a good laugh about it, including them, they were breathless with the effort...a good AB workout Im sure! And what were we all trying to photo--- This Great blue heron in the grass..now we see how the camo of his feathers work.
Then I stopped at the Dwarf Cypress forest...
4 ft above sea level...wow
I really liked the huge leathery ferns..look how BIG!
Saw more gray Gnatcatcher
More scenes from the Dwarf Cypress area
More scenes from the Dwarf Cypress area
There is a marina and a beach but its a muddy kind of beach (found out the hard way) not the sandy kind you enjoy a walk on...and the Florida Bay.
There was a huge flock of Black Skimmers here...
they would flush and then return over and over...can never get enough of these colorful birds!
and lots of Laughing Gulls on the dock...by the marina
In the visitors center a board to write sightings..
Couple of things listed there I can def check on!! More in next post..
PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.
