In the southern quarter of the US state of Florida, located on the peninsula of the same name, is the world-famous natural-territorial complex of the tropical type Everglades. The national park occupies only a small part of this very vast region, while the main part of it has already been affected by man. However, you can get an idea of what Florida looked like before mass urbanization, agricultural development and tourism, after visiting a protected area. Today, the Everglades National Park (Florida, USA) is one of the most popular in the country with tourists from all over the world.
Big Three National Parks
Three U. S. nature reserves enjoy worldwide fame, and the Everglades National Park is the third most visited among them, behind such giants as Yellowstone and Death Valley. However, even being in third place, the park boasts an annualmillion visitors from both North America and other continents.
Yellowstone National Park is located in the northwest of the United States, Death Valley is in the southwestern part of the country, and Everglades National Park is in the southeast, on the Atlantic coast of the United States.
Thus, all three parks are unique landscapes that are not found anywhere else and do not resemble anything else. In addition, each of the reserves is distinguished by a truly American scale. Yellowstone covers 893 thousand hectares, Everglades National Park is located on more than six thousand square kilometers, Death Valley covers 7800 square kilometers.
Everglades Nature Complex
National parks in the United States began to appear in the first half of the twentieth century, but by that time a significant part of the vast natural complex had been destroyed as a result of construction, drainage and agricultural activities.
From a geographical point of view, the area is a flat, spacious swamp, rising only one to two meters above sea level. The swamp is fed by the waters of the Kissimmee River. Within the complex there are several areas: Lake Okeechobee, the lowlands of the Everglades, overgrown with sedge, the Great Cypress Swamp, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the shallows and sandbars of the Gulf of Florida.
The elevated sandy coast of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the beaches, stand apart. The mangroves of Florida have a close connection with the nature of the Everglades. Today, despitestrong anthropogenic pressure, and significant efforts are also being made to restore the natural balance in one of the most populated US states.
Everglades Park in Florida. Foundation
In the southern swampy subtropical region of the Everglades, south of the Tamamiami hiking trail in Florida, is the third largest natural biosphere reserve in the United States, Everglades National Park.
The territory of the park is recognized by UNESCO as part of the world heritage, and this imposes certain obligations on the conservation of the territory. For example, the park has only one road, and the only outbuildings are the Flamingo Campground and the main tourist center, which has very few permanent employees. All other territory is completely wild.
The territory received the status of a national park on May 30, 1934, but in fact it became only on December 6, 1947. And the status of a world heritage was assigned to it in 1976.
Park structure and geography
From all sides, the vast territory of the park is surrounded by agricultural land and urban areas. On the one hand, its territory is washed by the waters of the Florida Strait, on the other - by the Gulf of Mexico.
Ernest Coy's main administrative building complex is located in the southeastern part of the park, west of Florida City and Homestead. A few kilometers from this center there are tourist and educational centers. All buildingslocated in a picturesque pine forest.
Another six kilometers is a beautiful observation deck, from which a road goes south through the Cypress Swamp, turning into the Mahagonny-Hammock hiking trail, leading the traveler into the depths of the forest.
Mangroves. Fauna
Further on, the named trail leads to the coastal areas of the US National Park in Florida. Scattered in the mangroves are hundreds of small lakes and rivers that flow into the Strait of Florida. In the swampy mouths of these streams, there are, although rare, sharp-snouted crocodiles that are found nowhere else in the United States.
However, the most important natural attraction of the mangrove swamps are American manatees, also known as sea cows. Often these slow and graceful creatures can be seen basking on the surface of the water in the morning hours, when the water is especially cool.
At the end of the hiking trail, in the very south of the park is the Flamingo Visitor Center. It is located in the coastal steppe area north of the Strait of Florida. From Flamingo Center, trails head west to Sable Point, considered Florida's westernmost point.
Also, a canal begins from the center, going into the wild undeveloped territory for one hundred and sixty kilometers. Just south of Flamingo is a canoe rental center that offers an unforgettable multi-day trip.
Northern part of the park
National park photoThe Everglades are popular with tourists due to the unsurpassed picturesque landscapes of this reserve. The most touristic is the northern part of the park, where the only motor road is located, looped into the route leading tourists to the Shark River bog.
This river is a slow freshwater stream that originates in Lake Okeechobee and flows into the sea in the southwest of the peninsula. Throughout its length, the stream is covered with small forest patches of swampy rainforest, which are home to native fish and reptiles. When talking about the Everglades National Park, they probably mean this particular place, since it is often found in tourist photographs. Almost the entire surface of this river is covered with dense thickets of tall sword grass.
Indigenous
By the time when the Florida peninsula was discovered by the Spanish conquistador Juan de Leon, the shores of the Gulf of Florida were inhabited by two Indian tribes: the Tequesta and the Calusa. The area now occupied by Florida's Everglades National Park served at the time as a natural and almost impassable border between the two tribes.
In this part of America, agriculture did not develop at all, as the locals ate mainly fish and shrimp, which allowed nature to preserve its original state before the arrival of Europeans.
