The waters of Everglades and Big Cypress are home to more than a few reptilian creatures/Patrick Cone

Winter is not the season to leave the rig in the driveway. Across the National Park System there are wonderful places to explore while half the nation is locked in snow and cold. 

America'™s Tropics

While the top of the nation scrapes ice off their car windshields, down south in America'™s tropics the sky is blue, the air is cool, and the trees are green. Warm up and experience these three gems of the National Park System just a short distance from the beaches of Miami. Florida is a land of contrasts. Grab a couple of cubanos (cuban sandwiches) and head east on the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), past the town of Sweetwater (founded by wintering circus midgets!), past the earthen dikes that protect the city, and into the sea of grass.

You'™ll get a good taste of Everglades National Park and the River of Grass at the new Shark Valley Visitor Center, just 25 miles from town. Take a naturalist-led tram tour, or walk or bike (there are rentals) the 7.5-mile roundtrip boardwalk trail to the Shark Valley Observation Tower, where you will see herons, deer, turtles, and alligators far below. The Shark Valley Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Just ten miles further west on U.S. 41, find yourself in Big Cypress National Preserve, where the pines and cypress groves rise above the grassy plains. Watch for alligators sunning themselves along the roadway. As long as you don'™t bother them, they won'™t bother you.

The fresh water from the 729,000-acre Big Cypress Swamp flows with its nutrients to the Everglade'™s Florida Bay to the south, one of the largest estuaries in the world, where boats are limited to low-speed polling, or trolling. Sunsets and wildlife are spectacular all along the roads.

Once back in the city, experience a different type of wilderness, at Biscayne National Park. Dolphins, manatees, and sea turtles call this mangrove-lined bay home. Just 9 miles east of Homestead, Florida, a good first stop in the park is the Dante Fascell Visitor Center with its hands-on museum and displays.

For the adventurous, visit Stiltsville near the northern end of the bay, and see squatters'™ unique water-homes that date back to the 1930s. Better yet, grab your snorkel or scuba gear and explore the Maritime Heritage Trail with its wrecks of old.