MEGFORIT

I love National Parks! The National Park Service is a treasure to this country! (Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt.) Just recently I took a long drive west to visit the Everglades National Park. We packed up our bikes and decided to see this natural ecosystem in a unique way! Inside of the Everglades National Park is an area called “Shark Valley”. You won’t see any sharks on this bike trail, but nearby are the brackish waters of the Shark River and Little shark river that contain several species of sharks. Thus the name Shark Valley was given! On this 15 mile bike loop you will see many alligators. I personally lost count at around 30 gators. There are everywhere! The best time to go is in the beginning or the end of the year, when its a bit cooler. There is also a nice breeze that passes through the grasslands in this area. But they are so much more than alligators to see, there are butterflies, owls, snakes, turtles, and many different species of wading birds. riding your bike through the trail is the best and most common way that people see everything. You can rent a bike or bring your own. I suggest you bring your own, it can take up to 3 hours to do the full 15 miles. You will find yourself stopping and photographing everything. At the halfway point of the loop is a tall Observation Tower. From up here you can see for miles, throughout all the everglades. It’s simply beautiful. The view makes it worth the long winding bike ride. There are also bathrooms at this halfway point. When you loop around back to the starting point, there is a beautifully maintained Visitors Center with resources for kids to learn about the Everglades. There is also a gift shop and more bathrooms as well.

Tip: In a corner of each National Park visitors center is a small table with a stamp specific to the park and the date along with it. Don’t forget to stamp a piece of paper or your National Parks Passport so you never forget the time you had there.