The Purple gallinule is one of a number of amazingly beautiful birds that you might see in Everglades National Park/NPS, Rodney Cammauf

One of the most incredibly beautiful birds you'll find in Everglades National Park is the Purple Gallinule. Unless you see a Roseate spoonbill. Or maybe a Tri-colored heron. Or a ..., well, you get the idea. There are an amazing number of gorgeous, and more common, bird species in the park. But time is running out to easily spot many of them, as the rainy season isn't too far off.

May through November typically is the wet season in this paradise, and with more rain, birds don't need to cluster around water holes but can disperse across the river of grass. And unless you're willing to leave the park roadways in search of those birds, and face the prospect of bug clouds, snakes, and reptiles bigger than you (e.g., alligators and crocodiles), you won't have an easy time filling out your life list.

The varying seasons in Everglades are one of the first things you need to know about this national park, for you'll likely have a much more enjoyable time visiting between November and May than vice versa. Unless, of course, you prefer hot, muggy, buggy weather.

At a glance the park is incredible. It embraces the largest offically designated wilderness east of the Mississippi -- the 1.3-million-acre Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness -- is festooned with delicate and fanciful orchids such as the Cowhorn (Cyrtopodium punctatum), and layered with both hiking and paddling trails.

Everglades is rich in wildlife, though some, such as huge constrictors, are non-native and creating an ecological nightmare in the park. The park's infestation by Burmese pythons is one threat that landed the park on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Site In Danger list.

Non-native Burmese pythons have made Everglades home/NPS

If you’re hoping to see wildlife, then visit the Everglades during the dry winter months when animals concentrate around rapidly diminishing watering holes throughout the park. Alligators, wading birds, and other freshwater wildlife are readily seen at Shark Valley, the Anhinga Trail (at Royal Palm), and Eco Pond (one mile past the Flamingo Visitor Center). Canoeists can observe large numbers of wading birds feeding before low tide in the shallows and mud flats of Snake Bight (near Flamingo) and Chokoloskee Bay (Gulf Coast). Another good place for canoeists is Nine Mile Pond and the adjacent borrow pits (11 miles up the road from Flamingo). Motorists, bicyclists, hikers, boaters, and paddlers are likely to see plenty of charismatic creatures near the roads, trails, and waterways.

As noted above, winter months are better in terms of both temperatures and insects, but it’s also the busy season, so expect to share trails and campgrounds with lots of fellow travelers. 

The park’s 19 hiking trails are located in four general areas – Royal Palm, Lone Pine Key, Flamingo, and Shark Valley. Perhaps the most traversed trail is the Anhinga Trail, a short and easy (wheelchair accessible) self-guiding trail that heads out from the Royal Palm Visitor Center and winds through a sawgrass marsh. It is very popular because it is exceptionally easy to get to and affords wonderful views of the sawgrass and an assortment of interesting wildlife. Visitors can expect to see alligators, turtles, anhingas, herons, egrets, and many other birds (especially during the winter).

While Everglades National Park might evoke images of swamps and scaly denizens, Florida Bay’s waters cover one-third of the park. There are mangrove channels in this vibrant estuary, which is of national significance. Emerald mangrove islands stipple the bay, and punctuate the horizon in all directions. You might get an idea of what the Florida Keys were like before T-shirt shops and Jimmy Buffett.

During the winter months sign up for guided cruises, offered daily to both Florida Bay and the backcountry. You’ll see crocodiles, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, and all manner of shorebirds, so be sure your camera is fully charged and ready.

Though you won't find any mountains, or really any hills, in Everglades, you can encounter stunning sunsets and sunrises/NPS

As Contributing Writer Emeritus Bob Janiskee noted back in 2009, "people who visit Everglades National Park for the first time tend to have little knowledge of it, but lots of misconceptions. Most are pleasantly surprised to discover that the park isn’t just a 'big swamp full of ‘gators and snakes.' However, many also conclude that Everglades is 'scenically challenged.' You don’t encounter awesome peaks, gorgeous waterfalls, or other dramatic scenery like you find in Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, or Hawaii Volcanoes. Everglades has a more understated appeal. Much of what you see is very interesting, even compelling, but it‘s not likely to make you stop in your tracks and say “Wow!” (Some will disagree with that last statement, of course. You’ll just have to go see for yourself.)"

This is not a park open to "windshield" touring, because most of it is protected wilderness and there are few roads. But it is most certainly amenable to exploring by paddle -- primarily sea kayak. There are 53 designated canoe routes, including the Wilderness Waterway. Paddlers should obtain get a copy of Molloy’s A Paddler's Guide To Everglades National Park. 

The park’s canoe trails vary in length and difficulty. Canoeists putting in at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center can take the Sandfly Island trip (2.5 hrs.), the Turner River trip (5 hrs.), or the Halfway Creek and Turner River Loop (4 hrs.). Those putting in at Flamingo can tool around Florida Bay (shallow estuaries) or paddle Nine Mile Pond Loop (5.2 miles of interconnected waterways through a shallow sawgrass marsh with scattered islands of mangroves), the Noble Hammock Trail (a two-mile loop through a maze of shady mangrove-lined creeks and small ponds), the Hells Bay Trail ("hell to get into and hell to get out of”), Bear Lake Canal (a narrow, tree-covered historic canal), Mud Lake Loop, or West Lake Trail (good alligator and crocodile habitat).

The ambitious can tackle the Wilderness Waterway, a 99-mile inland water route extending along the mangrove shoreline between the Flamingo and Gulf Coast visitor centers. In between, there’s no road access and you’ll pine for this kind of solitude and peace-of-mind once you’re back in civilization. There is nowhere else in the Eastern United States where you will experience this sort of isolation. Numbered markers wind through mangrove forests, through Whitewater Bay, and around countless mangrove islands.

Boats equipped with outboard motors can make the trip in one day, but canoeists usually take about nine. Campsites are available along the route, including open-sided huts (chickees) perched on stilts in places with no dry land. Backcountry permits (available at the Gulf Coast and Flamingo Visitor Centers) are required for overnight stays.

There has been no lodging in the park since 2005 when back-to-back hurricanes battered Everglades. Now, however, Everglades Guest Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guest Services, Inc., is under contract to build 24 cottages and 20 eco-tents at Flamingo by December 2019; eventually there could be as many as 40 cottages and 40 eco-tents. A restaurant also is expected to be built there.

Flamingo is accessed by water, through Florida Bay, or a 45-minute scenic drive through the park. Under the concessions plan, visitors should be able to walk out their cottage door, and within minutes have the opportunity to see crocodiles, alligators, manatees, sawfish, sea turtles, dolphin, tarpon and more. Flamingo is also a world-class birding and fishing paradise, with rich history of peoples and industries from the Calusa & Tequesta Indians, Guy Bradley and the Audubon Society, to Henry Flagler and agriculture.

Put it all together, and Everglades presents you with an incredible opportunity to see how much of south Florida once was, offers a wildlife menagerie, and can provide an amazing wilderness experience.

Traveler choice for: Birding, fishing, botanicals, paddling.

Traveler footnote: Helpful resources include One Night In The Everglades, Snake in the Grass: An Everglades Invasion, and The Swamp.