The sixth stop of the day was the Pinelands trail, the light blue arrow on the map. This trail is a lot different from other trails in the park and reminded us more of Eastern Oregon than the tropical trails in the area, although there were still occasional palm trees. For Kathleen the most exciting thing on this trail was the tree snails. They can be hard to see at first, but if you slow down they are everywhere.
They come in a wide variety of colors, and given the fact that they don't move very far or quickly their range is quite small. This means that there are large genetic differences between the populations even a few trees over. Collectors used to take a few members of a population and then burn down the tree in the area to make their specimen more rare, and drive up the value.
After this trail, we decided to skip ahead to the visitor center, the dark blue arrow, because we concerned that they were going to close before we got a chance to fully look around there. The visitor center was pretty typical, and nice. The fun thing at the visitor center though was chatting with another couple that was entering the park in their RV.
They were probably in their late 40s, early 50s and we learned they were from Bremerton. They are on a similar trip to ours and we had a great time discussing the Pacific Northwest with them and the park ranger who happened to be from Seattle. They said they were headed to the southwest in the late winter / early spring, so hopefully we'll see them again down the road.
After the visitor center we went back to one of the most popular trails in the park, the Anhinga Trail. This trail, marked with the purple arrow on the map, also says it has the Royal Palm visitor center. There isn't a lot by way of a visitor center there, although they were setting up for an event outside the next day.
The trail itself is a short boardwalk through a swamp area with a view of tons of birds.
We got there just at the right time, just as the sun was starting to set and everything was gorgeous. It was the perfect end to our first day in Everglades.
After the visitor center we went back to one of the most popular trails in the park, the Anhinga Trail. This trail, marked with the purple arrow on the map, also says it has the Royal Palm visitor center. There isn't a lot by way of a visitor center there, although they were setting up for an event outside the next day.
The trail itself is a short boardwalk through a swamp area with a view of tons of birds.
We got there just at the right time, just as the sun was starting to set and everything was gorgeous. It was the perfect end to our first day in Everglades.
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