It apparently has been real soggy in NC. Weather had been mixed here in Florida, but mostly free of rain and quite warm. Saying this reminds me of when my parents moved from Yonkers, New York to Merritt Island, Florida. Mom was continuously trying to convince Jean & me (“me” is correct, you know) with our two young daughters to move from our home in Michigan to Florida . Invariably, if there was inclement winter weather in Michigan (anywhere in Michigan), we would get a phone call from mother to tell us how nice it was in Florida and deriding us for enduring the same type of weather that she had lived with for the previous 55 years. We swore that mom stayed glued to the Weather Channel just waiting for the opportunity to point out the difference in the weather in our respective locations. There is probably a lonely grandmother iPhone app for that now.
The first time we did pack the two little “chitlins” in the car and made the 2-day trek to grandma’s house – it was freezing down there. Upon returning from the discount store with a cache of winter apparel, mom exclaimed “it has never been this cold before in the history of Florida before”. Didn’t mammoths reside in Florida once? Well, at least we had a fresh set of winter ware for when we returned to Michigan.
Back to this trek: The morning of October 1st we worked our way north and west out of Homestead on Florida’s SR 41 (the Tamiami Trail), to Sanibel Island on Florida’s southwestern Gulf Coast. A few miles north of Homestead, the Tamiami Trail heads west , cutting directly through the central Everglades. Alon the way we encountered an official looking sign denoting “Rock Reef Pass – Elevation 3 feet”. Back to this trek: The morning of October 1st we worked our way north and west out of Homestead on Florida’s SR 41 (the Tamiami Trail), to Sanibel Island on Florida’s southwestern Gulf Coast. A few miles north of Homestead, the Tamiami Trail heads west , cutting directly through the central Everglades. Along the Trail we encountered an official looking sign stating “Rock Reef Pass – Elevation 3 feet”. The highest pass elevation that we have traveled over in the Jeep is Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado at 10,856 feet. Rock Reef Pass set a record for the lowest elevation pass at 3 feet.
10-1-15 Entering Florida Everglades National Park
We stopped at Everglades National Park; first visiting the Visitor’s Center on the eastern edge of the Park for an excellent orientation by and enthusiastic ranger, and then drove on to locations representing a few of the seven ecosystems present in the park. It ain’t all swamp and alligators. You might find it interesting to investigate the Park’s history and present issues facing the Everglades. Here is a little preview:
10-1-15 Rock Reef Pass, Everglades National Park
This part of the Everglades originally consisted of a 50 mile wide shallow “stream” of water slowly flowing south out of Lake Okeechobee (Florida’s largest freshwater lake) toward southern Florida and ultimately out into Florida’s southern bays. Decades ago, in the interest of making the valuable land under that “stream” accessible for farming (largely government subsidized sugar cane) and development, canals were cut east and west to drain much of the Everglades water off to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, respectively. It is only recently that efforts have been made to restore some of the water flow to a small portion of the original Everglades territory. Time will tell if the quality, quantity, and timing of water flow events will result in a restoration, at least in part, of the original separate seven ecological environments once present in the Everglades.
So, with that history lesson (according to Dan) under your belt; you might not be surprised that much of the crossing of the Everglades on the Tamiami Trail paralleled a large canal with massive locks and diversion channels. Fortunately, there were some wide expanses of shallow water marshland to give one some feel for what once existed.
After crossing the Everglades, the Tamiami Trail (FL SR 41) heads north, from which one can continue west to Sanibel Island. Jean and I selected this as our next stop, as she had always liked patiently picking her way through fossils, historical remnants, and of course, that which Sanibel Island is noted – seashells. Me; give me a pickax and a shovel and let the “chips” fall where they may. Anyway, after spending the evening of October 1st at a pleasant gulf side motel on the Island, we checked the tide schedule, which indicated low-tide would be 11am the next day.