Everglades?

What?s camping like in the Everglades.    What?s the best  place to camp ?    Much to see and do .

First off lets address the elephant in the room. Summer is mosquito season. The companies that make mosquito repellent spend their summers at the Everglades testing products. April is about the latest you should be going there and not before November. Attached is an actual mosquito meter from the entrance booth at the Flamingo Campground. My favorite campground is the Flamingo Campgrounds since it is right on the Bay of Florida. There is also Long Pine Key Campground which I have not stayed in. I think there is a lot here to do since I am a bird photographer. If you are not into bird photography then I would think you would only need a few days to see the whole place. There are some cool sunset tours into the Bay of Florida and there are some cool kayak tours you can book.

We love the Everglades National Park and have paddled, explored  and camped along the "ninty nine mile wilderness waterway" as well as taken many back country multiday camping trips.
The only two public camping sites in the NP are from the southern entrance.  Flamingo which is at the very end of the main 30 mile park road, and Long Pine Key which is five miles from the entrance station.
Neither one has full hookups. Flamingo has two sections. One has some electric sites, but no water except for a water station at the bath house and just cold water showers. The other section has no electric, but does have a solar heated shower room.
At Flamingo you can rent canoes, kayaks or a house boat and explore some of the interior of the Everglades via the Buttonwood Canal or explore Florida Bay
Long Pine key is in the middle of a Pine Grove and has no electricity or water except water at the shower room and cold showers
If you are not a nature lover or enjoy the solitude of wilderness don't even think of spending much time in the NP since you must be able to combat mosquitoes and no-see-ums on a regular basis.
Back country camping in my estimation is the way to go and you must get a permit at the ranger station and pick a place or places where you want to camp. Also if you want a wilderness beach that is loaded with shells get your permit(s) for Cape Sable or Highlands beach.
There  are nice camp sites on some of the Keys at the Northern entrance also.
One thing to be aware of is the fact that the water in Florida Bay and the interior water ways is not clear like the west coast, east coast or Florida Keys water, but is very murkey.

I could go on all day and if you want any more info just ask or e-mail me.
If you are a paddler, my wife and I have a free google web site with a bunch of good paddle trips described from both the northern entrance and the southern entrance

Jack L

Adding to what JackL said:

The sites at Flamingo are all right out in the open, with little or no vegetation around them. The sites at Long Pine Key are mostly surrounded by shrubbery, and have a feeling of privacy.

The second bathhouse in the walk-in area at Flamingo also has hot showers.

The mosquitoes at Flamingo can go from completely absent one day to intolerable the next day. I have never experienced much of a mosquito problem at Long Pine.

Two camp grounds in Big Cypress National Preserve may also be useful. Midway is fairly close to the Shark Valley entrance, while Monument Lake can be used for the Gulf Coast entrance.

Joel

Something else you'll see in Flamingo is salt water crocodiles and manatees.

ChasA said:

Something else you'll see in Flamingo is salt water crocodiles and manatees.

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Two weeks ago we did a 17 mile out and back kayak paddle on the West Lake canoe trail to Garfield Bight and saw some very large Crocs.  In Alligator Creek (oddly not called crocodile creek) two of them jumped off the bank right in front of us. Then coming back in West Lake in about three feet of water I went right over a very large one not
knowing it was there until I looked down. I could have touched it I was so close, and then a little farther on there was another smaller one swimming under water but  I saw it in time too paddle away from it.

Jack L

Do they make alligator repellent spray? I'd buy 4 gallons of it before canoeing in the Everglades.  ;D  I'm really averse to hanging around critters with small brains, sharp teeth, and big stomachs. 

IBTripping said:

Do they make alligator repellent spray? I'd buy 4 gallons of it before canoeing in the Everglades.  ;D  I'm really averse to hanging around critters with small brains, sharp teeth, and big stomachs. 

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Nothing to worry about. Alligators are a few hundred million years old. Humans a few hundred thousand years old. We are neither prey nor dinner to a gator, we don't even register on their radar unless we get right in the water right in front of them. There have only been a handful of gator attacks on humans in the last twenty years and in every case the gator takes one bite and spits us out, we don't taste good. They are only biting out of curiosity. Gators are not prowling the waters looking for careless humans. Leave them alone and you will have no trouble.

SeilerBird said:

in every case the gator takes one bite and spits us out, we don't taste good. They are only biting out of curiosity.

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There, you feel better Tripping? I know I do 

I hear you Tom, and things are likely to be fine. I've also heard people say the timber rattlers (I've seen two 4-5 footers this week) won't bother you, the coral snakes (for which there is no antivenom and which if bitten there is a decent chance of death) are timid. I had someone tell me out west that mountain lions weren't anything to be worried about either. Tell that to the guy who recently fought one to the death that was trying to kill him. I'm currently in an area with bears, panthers, gaters and a variety of snakes, some of which are capable of killing me (even if I taste bad and they don't really want to) and must be treated accordingly. It's all fun and games until you're the one.

Back2PA said:

There, you feel better Tripping? I know I do 

I hear you Tom, and things are likely to be fine. I've also heard people say the timber rattlers (I've seen two 4-5 footers this week) won't bother you, the coral snakes (for which there is no antivenom and which if bitten there is a decent chance of death) are timid. I had someone tell me out west that mountain lions weren't anything to be worried about either. Tell that to the guy who recently fought one to the death that was trying to kill him. I'm currently in an area with bears, panthers, gaters and a variety of snakes, some of which are capable of killing me (even if I taste bad and they don't really want to) and must be treated accordingly. It's all fun and games until you're the one.

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I was a wildlife photographer for many years and spent many years hiking in forests all alone except for the bears, wolves and gators. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. There is no animal that will attack you and eat you. Very few mountain lion attacks ever occur. The guy who killed the mountain lion was really really stupid. You do not run in any area that might contain a mountain lion. They automatically chase down any running prey, it is in their DNA. Since 1900 there have only been 25 fatal mountain lion attacks in the US. Same thing for sharks. One bite and they spit you out. Amazingly 40,000 people a year die in automobile accidents every year and people worry about wild animals attacking them. Then they have a drink and drive anyway. The real danger is the tourists.

Well what about tthe little two year old at disney a couple years ago.  Alligator got him.  And just a couple months ago one came out of a lake here by my house and ate a neighbors dog,  good news is i think they only eat once a week.  Right.  Lol

I pretty much agree with Tom. My closest alligator encounter was several years ago while paddling in Okefenokee Swamp. The water levels were a little low, and on the afternoon of our second day, we encountered a downed tree completely obstructing the trail. There was no choice, except to get into the water and pull the canoes over the tree trunk.

I was waist deep, pulling on a canoe, when a large (about 10 ft.) gator swam over. He kept nudging me in the back of the legs with his open mouth. He clearly expected to be fed, but was really not very aggressive. I kept pulling on the canoe with one hand while using the other to try and keep a paddle between me and those teeth. All the while, DW was throwing hand fulls of Cheetos into his mouth. Not typical alligator food, but it was the only food that immediately handy, and it seemed to keep him happy.

I would correct one point. Although not common, fatal alligator attacks on humans do occasionally occur. See https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/15/24-alligator-attacks/85955624/. Dogs, however, are a great gator snack.

Joel

Do keep small pets and small children away from alligators, but American alligators are not at all like the pictures you see of Australian crocodiles lunging out of the water to attack adults.  They are just too lazy, although I might not have liked that 10-footer nuzzling the backs of my legs.

First, Midway campground is lovely and has electrical hookups.  There is a dump station and water fill.  It is also in the open so fewer mosquitos than other places.  You can ride a bike two miles down the road to a visitor center with dozens of alligators or just cross the highway and find them in the ditch on the other side.  And Shark Valley is about 15 miles away, and a wonderful place, with alligators, of course, but tons of birds.  You can ride a tram or your own bike around the paved, 15-mile loop trail.  Alligators climb up on the blacktop to sun themselves and warm up enough to eat, but they don't bother pedestrians or bike riders.  You can walk a yard away from them, but please don't bother them.  They might get irritated and "growl" if you try to pet them.  I have seen rangers standing three feet from one while lecturing to a school group and the alligator just kept snoozing.

Law is that you must not get within 15 feet of an alligator, but on a narrow pathway, that is not possible.  Haven't read anything about the hoards of tourists on the pathway getting eaten lately.

And Disney was negligent is putting a "beach" on one of their lakes, which are basically just big alligator ponds.  That child's death was horrible, but it was Disney's fault for not warning tourists that that beach was for looking and now for swimming.

Peggyy said:

Well what about tthe little two year old at disney a couple years ago.  Alligator got him.  And just a couple months ago one came out of a lake here by my house and ate a neighbors dog,  good news is i think they only eat once a week.  Right.  Lol

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That kid was swimming a lake that was filled with alligators. The alligator did not eat him, one bite and he spit him out. Judy is correct, it was Disney's fault. My RV has a nice lagoon in my backyard and I see a gator in there occasionally. There are kids living on this lagoon. No danger if you don't fall in. Once again drunk drivers are the real problem.

One of my favorite restaurants here in Orlando has a boat dock patio dining with the following warning about alligators. Don't feed the wild alligators. I guess it ok to feed the tame gators...
Also a shot of my back yard.

And thank you judyjb.  We are looking at midway and also pine key.

SeilerBird, now I'm truly hurt to find out alligators don't like my taste. Well, I ate some alligator tail once and didn't like the taste of that either. So there!!!  ;D

IBTripping said:

SeilerBird, now I'm truly hurt to find out alligators don't like my taste. Well, I ate some alligator tail once and didn't like the taste of that either. So there!!!  ;D

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I've always heard it taste like chicken....I guess it would depend on who and how they cooked the chicken ;D ;D

IBTripping said:

SeilerBird, now I'm truly hurt to find out alligators don't like my taste. Well, I ate some alligator tail once and didn't like the taste of that either. So there!!!  ;D

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It is not just alligators that don't like the way we taste, no wild animal likes the way we taste. The most any wild animal does is take a bite and spit us out. There are about 20 million humans living in Florida and about 2 million gators. That's one gator to 10 humans. The state is open 24/7/365 and millions of people come here to vacation and many go in the water. Yet a gator attack on a human is extremely rare here. If they were the vicious senseless killer that most people imagine the kills would be a lot higher.

I don't doubt that you are correct. With the exception of Polar Bears, most predators don't perceive humans as prey. However, there are cases of predators becoming man-eaters, but it's rare. That said, I don't think I'd feel comfortable with an alligator taking even one little bit of me.