Sometime in 2008 we decided we wanted to do a night ride at Shark Valley. I looked into it and found out that they have full moon group rides. I didn't feel like going with a group of people we don't know though so we just went out on our own.
For our night ride we had to park out on 41/Tamiami Trail. The lot closes at sunset so if we parked there we would have been locked in or towed. So we parked out on the side of the highway and rode our bikes in.
Riding Shark Valley in the dark is completely different than it is in the day, besides the fact that you can't see anything obviously. For starters there were these brown rats everywhere. I think they were rice rats or cotton rats, I can't remember which one. But in all the bike rides I have done there I have never seen a single rat except on the night time rides. They come out right before the sun comes down and they are everywhere. Another thing we saw right before dusk were all the morning glory vines blooming. Once the sun comes up in the morning the flowers close back up.
When we got to the tower Phil showed us a really cool trick. He had us put a flashlight on the tip of our nose and look out at the water. When we did we could see hundreds of eyes looking shining back at us. It was so quiet we had no clue what was down there until we put the light on our nose. In case you're wondering, yes those glowing eyes were all alligators.
We hung out at the tower for a while, ate some snacks, and laughed at a really large group that showed up and said some really dumb things. We probably hung out at the tower for close to two hours, a good hour after the sun went down.
Once the sun goes down it's like the Everglades are a completely different place. In the day all you'll hear out there are birds and pig frogs (they sound just like grunting hogs). At night its a different story (listen to the videos below). The tree frogs are so loud at night, a noise I quite enjoyed while riding back.
About halfway back to the truck Phil slammed his brakes. We had no idea why he stopped until he turned around with a baby gator in his hands. Mama gator was no where to be seen so we took a couple pictures with it and sent it on it's way. A few minutes later I caught me a Southern Toad on the road and snapped a picture with it.
We finally returned to my truck around 11 that night. It was an all around epic bike ride. Definitely on my top 5 list for bike rides at Shark Valley.
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