Everglades National Park is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States and the largest subtropical wilderness in the US. It is also an important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species like the American crocodile, Manatee, and the elusive Florida panther.
The Anhinga Trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Center is one of the highlights of the park, it is teeming with wildlife including alligators, turtles, anhinga, herons, egrets, and many other bird species. The trail is only .8 miles round trip and is paved.
We stayed at the Flamingo Campsite at the other end of the access road (Florida State Highway 9336). This is about 30 miles from the park entrance visitor center. April is not a bad time to tent in the Everglades as it is not overbearingly hot and the mosquitos although prevalent are not as bad at other times of the year. There also were only about 5 or 6 other campsites taken in the entire campground. This was probably partly due to no amenities as hurricane Irma had done damage to the Flamingo Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is being repaired and is set to reopen in 2022. You will want to make sure to bring all the food you need if camping here as the restaurant and even vending machines are closed. The campground also has Eco-Tents available for rent now.
The beach area along the ocean does not look like something you would want to swim in as the water is muddy looking and the beach is made of clay and not sand.
There was some wildlife in this section of the park, the highlight being the Manatee and American Crocodile. Also, a pair of Osprey were sighted.
