January 12-18, 2026
Long Pine Key Campground
I headed to South Florida for a week to explore Florida’s three National Parks. I made Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades National Park my home base.
There are two campgrounds in the Everglades National Park – Long Pine Key and Flamingo. Flamingo has full hookups and is on the western side of the park while Long Pine Key is strictly primitive with no hookups and on the east side of the park. I chose Long Pine because I wanted to be on the east side (closer to the exit and the other two national parks). I also hoped that near the exit the town of Homestead Florida would offer some nice dining out options – this proved not the case.
Despite the cloudy days while I was there I had no issues using my solar for everything I wanted / needed, and the solar water heated showers in the campground were piping hot every time I used them.
Everglades National Park – January 13
First day in the Everglades I hiked the short Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo Trails. Despite hundreds of Anhigas (the bird that dives and swims under water I did not get a “good” picture of one. Here is one drying in a tree after a swim.
And a couple other birds – first an egret with a fish:
And a Blue Heron:
The Gumbo Limbo trail goes through a hammock of Gumbo Limbo trees. I got a cool picture of a spiderweb on that trail:
That afternoon I drove the 30 miles on park roads to Flamingo where I hoped to get a boat tour. The concessionaire said the tour left at 2PM, had plenty of room, and to be there at 1:45PM. I went lunch at the Flamingo Restaurant and when I returned at 1:45PM the tour was full. There’s always tomorrow.
I spent the rest of the day at the two visitor centers and back at camp.
Everglades National Park – January 14
Back to the tour boats. They offer two boat tours; a “Back Country tour” and “Bayside” tour. I got the 9AM Back Country tour. The tour is on a small pontoon boat the follows the “plugged” Buttonwood Canal from Flamingo to eastern edge of Whitewater Bay. It is ‘plugged” because the man-made canal used to provide a shortcut from Flamingo to the Florida Bay. But the canal allowed the Florida Bay’s salt water into the fresh water Back Country resulting in brackish water and damaging ecosystems. After years of operations the Parks service plugged the canal, eliminating the shortcut but improving ecosystems.
Along the canal the Park Naturalist pointed out birds, other wildlife, and park factoids. The Everglades is the third largest National Park in the lower 48 states at 1.5 million acres (behind #1 Death Valley and #2 Yellowstone). One million of the acres is over the land and 500,000 is the Florida Bay.
The Naturalist pointed out this particular Red Mangrove and claimed that it is pictured in many textbooks as a prime example of the Red Mangrove.
As we were cruising down the canal the naturalist spotted this crocodile – first crocodile I’ve seen in Florida (I’ve seen plenty of alligators). I was amazed that he was able to pick this out of the background while cruising.
Among the birds pointed out were this heron and anhinga:
After following the canal to Coot Bay Pond then Tarpon Creek we entered the Whitewater Bay (pictured below) before turning around.
Int the afternoon I drove north to the Shark Valley area of the park for an Air Boat Tour.
The boat I was on had only one engine but there were about 15 people on it.
The only picture of an alligator I took. Most (if not all) of the group on the air boat were very interested in seeing the alligators.
I took a lot of videos but these files are huge so only posting a short clip.
Biscayne National Park – January 15
My timing was not good for Biscayne National Park. Most of the park is water and associated Keys so most people take boat tours. They offer snorkeling tours, Paddle Board tours, and boat tours. The boat tours are 3 hours and depart at ~9AM and ~1PM. I arrived around 9:30AM and didn’t want to wait around a few hours for a three hour boat ride. I settled for a few pictures from land and a commitment to return.
A view of Miami from Biscayne National Park.
And back to the Everglades.
Everglades National Park – January 15
I stopped at the Visitor Center to grab a picture of a Python Skeleton. At the time this Python was dissected for its skeleton it was the largest ever caught at about 17 feet. Since then a 19 footer was caught in 2023.
The I drove back to Flamingo for the afternoon Open Bay Boat tour. Only one worth sharing – the Florida Bay.
Dry Tortugas National Park – January 16
Although I spent the most time in the Everglades I consider Dry Tortugas to be the highlight of this trip. I reserved a Sea Plane flight out Key West to visit the Island. The Island takes only 2-3 hours to see unless you want to swim and / or snorkel. I had been told that most of the colorful coral surrounding the island had been bleached white by the heat so I did not take swimming or snorkeling equipment.
The flight was very cool. I sat on the left side which meant on the way to the island I did not get a great view of the approach but on the return trip I had fantastic views, Here we go —
First key of interest on my side of the pale is this private island 30-40 miles west of Key West.
We also see this sunk ship:
And then a a few minutes later we approach Dry Tortugas:
Taxiing after the water landing:
Tied off on the sand:
This picture shows well the redder bricks near the top of the fort. Prior to Florida leaving the Union the brick used to build the fort came from Pensacola. After leaving the Union the brick had to be shipped from Maine and the bricks from Maine were much redder than those from Pensacola.
Aside from the Fort there is the nature. The island is home to a large group of Frigate birds. Here they are nesting.
And then the departure with much better views than the arrival:
On the return I get to see “Destroyer Key” so name because a US Navy Destroyer lost navigation an literally cut the key in half.
And finally approach to Key West.
Everglades National Park – January 17
Back to the Everglades for my last day in South Florida. I took my bike to the 15 mile Shark Valley bike trail. The trail is a loop that takes you to the Shark Valley Observation Tower. If I stopped to take a picture of every alligator I saw along the bike path the ride would have taken hours.
In the afternoon I rode my bike from the campsite to the Nike Missile Base Historic Area. Who new the park was home to a nuclear warhead capable Nike Missile Base. The base was operational from 1965 to 1979.
The next day I packed up and headed hom.