For those of you who don't know me, or haven't been following what I have been up to, I moved to Florida in January of 2006 and stayed until the end of 2012 when I left to advance my career and to be closer to family. I still have a house there so going back someday is a very real possibility although there are no plans in the works yet. There is a lot I miss about Florida. Nice beaches, insanely abundant wildlife, it's really green with lots of trees, 110 days a year of rain with intense thunder and lightning, clean air and blue skies, etc.
When I moved to Florida I had an obsession with seeing Alligators in the wild. I grew up in SoCal where there are impressive landscapes but the wildlife isn't nearly as abundant. A couple days after getting settled in I was at work and asked my coworkers where I could go to see an alligator in the wild, besides one of the many lakes around the city or watching them from the car while driving down Alligator Alley (I-75 between Weston and Naples). My coworkers told me about a place called Shark Valley, down in the Everglades where I could ride my bike and see alligators.
I decided that I was going to check this place out, I think the second weekend I was there in Florida. It didn't take long for this to become my favorite place to take out my mountain bike for a ride. The first time there I bought a season pass for Everglades National Park which I renewed for the next couple years. It was quite a bit different than what I had pictured in my head. There is no fencing, no vehcile traffic on the road (except the tram), it's an actual road (not a sidewalk), and the alligators really do come up and sit right on the road with people walking all around them. I didn't even have to get to the parking lot before I saw alligators laying on the side of the road. Right next to the start of the loop there is a dock where you can view wildlife and there are quite a few gators there soaking up the sun.
Due to all the trips I had there, and in different settings, my first few blogs are going to just be about Shark Valley. Shark Valley isn't the same all year. I've read good and bad reviews online and I have to say those who wrote bad reviews went at the wrong time, or they got turned off by the rude tram staff. In all my trips to Shark Valley I have never taken the tram and I've only had one bad experience there, at the end of June when the mosquitoes were so bad we only made it 1/8 of a mile before running back to the car. The best time to go is when it's dry (Feb-early May) because all the gators come over to the canal. In the summer there is so much water out in the Everglades you won't see nearly as many gators and you'll be under full attack by the mosquitoes.
Shark Valley is 1/2 mile south of 41/Tamiami Trail. There is a 15 mile loop that runs through the Everglades along the Shark River Slough. Most traffic (foot, bike, or tram) starts on the West road 7 miles to the tower and then goes back either the same way or on the East road which is 8 miles back. The two sides of the loop have very different views. On the West side there is a canal lined with trees and bushes where all the alligators, birds, and turtles like to hang out. The road is pretty much a striaght line to the tower. On the East side it's less trees/bushes and you can see miles of sawgrass, ponds of water, and islands of trees in the distance. This road isn't so straight. I would definetley say for wildlife viewing the West road is better. For a more peaceful ride when it's packed there, take the East road. Either way you'll end up at the tower which has an amazing view of the area. I think the claim is that you can see 14 miles out from the tower, although I snuck up higher once in 2008 and got an even better view. That will be one of my next blogs.
There's also a couple trails and a boardwalk right off the road that you can walk but you have to be aware of your surroundings and put on lots of bug spray in the wet season. I was on the trail by the tower one day and there was a black racer snake hanging down right above my head. It's a good thing I don't get creeped out by snakes.
I'd say in the first three years I lived in Florida I probably did about 3 dozen bike rides in Shark Valley even thought it was 45 miles from where I was living. I met my wife in April 2007 and the first time we hung out was actually with a group at Shark Valley. After that it soon become one of our favorite things to do on the weekend.
That summer we had an interesting ride when we were riding our bikes in Shark Valley and the weather started to take a turn. We didn't know if we should stop or keep going. This is when we witness one of the strangest weather events ever. We could see the rain coming at us like a wall but we kept on pushing forward. All of a sudden we were riding in the rain and we weren't liking it so we decided to head back. We turned around and went about 100 yards until we were out of the rain and then we stopped. Now we were standing just a couple feet out of the rain and it wasn't moving. We stood there for a couple minutes with it pouring down rain 5 feet in front of us while we were in the clear. Being a SoCal native I thought this was really cool.
Here are some pictures from my first year at Shark Valley. I'll have some better ones in my next posts. The first year I was there I didn't get as close as I did once I got more comfortable around the gators.
A Great Blue Heron. I get these in my back yard all the time too.
Little Blue Heron and a Purple Gallinule
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