We went West to the Big Cypress National Preserve which is part of the Everglades ecosystem and looked for suitable accommodations. Joanne likes her surroundings somewhat civilized. Mitch goes for a more primitive approach. We landed at the Trail Lakes Campground (aka the Skunk Research Center) in Ochopee, where Joanne was taken captive.

The Skunkape is the region’s version of Bigfoot and there are many grainy photographs of the beast in the wild.

Far more striking are the alligators which lounge in ditches and swamps. There has been an inordinate amount of rainfall this winter (the dry season) due to the El Nino effect so the hiking trails are covered with water. On our first day here we drove the Turner River Road which is an unpaved route through the swamp. Here we saw numerous alligators and an incredible array of birdlife.

 

The legs on this alligator were very strong and muscular. The gym rats at LA Fitness would be impressed.

A Great Egret was looking for a meal.

It captured a snake and took off.

We watched as he flew off with his catch.

Two Wood Storks along the side of the road. One got spooked and took flight.

A dark cloud rolled in. Rainfall can be sudden and either brief or prolonged, as we discovered.

The Great Cypress landscape is wet; the lack of buildings is a welcome break from Florida’s overdevelopment.

The next day we canoed the Turner River. Very peaceful and lovely.

The dense foliage makes us feel far away from civilization.

A Heron was wary as we approached.

A female Osprey screeched from the treetop.

We hiked one of the many trails and met this man who talked to us about the problems they are having with the invasive Burmese Python. We were told to be on the look out.

We did not see any of the Burmese Pythons but we did see many Gar swimming in the streams.

That night it poured and we hunkered down in the van. The next morning we decided to   head out, but before leaving we stopped in to see the wildlife exhibit at the Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters.

Joanne struck up a conversation with this friendly Umbrella Cockatoo.

And felt the skin of a pet Reticulated Python, which is 21 feet long!

No trip to the region is complete without stopping in at the Smallwood Store in Chokoloskee, which sits on the edge of the Thousand Islands. Established in 1906, it was the first trading outpost with the Seminole Indians. Today, it is a museum that documents the late 19th and 20th century history of the Everglades backcountry. It is like stepping back in time.

The store is exactly the way it was in the early 1900s.

Meet Ted Smallwood as he was in life.

The Bedroom.

A vintage photograph of Loren “Totch” Brown, famous Everglades’ outlaw, smuggler, an alligator hunter.

A Chokoloskee sunset.