Anhinga Trail in The Everglades

Published: 11/18/14 5:37 PM in Hike, National, North America, Travel.
By: Meredith Lambert Banogon

This year’s National Public Land’s Day fell on September 27th and this year we decided to take advantage of the free entrance into all public lands. The real purpose of this day is to get outside and volunteer at your local public lands to make the environment more accessible for other visitors throughout the year. Unfortunately we did not plan ahead enough to arrange any volunteering so instead we decided to venture into Everglades National Park for the day and hike a few of the easier trails in the park.

Once again we created a video to provide a more wholesome snapshot of our afternoon enjoying an sunny Florida day outside! As you can see, this type of small sojourn into the Everglades can be a great Miami day trip out of the city.

Hiking Anhinga Trail in The Everglades

The first trail we decided to hike was the Anhinga Trail near the Royal Palm Visitor Center at the southern entrance of The Everglades National Park. Although this is an easy hiking trail in the Everglades, it provides some of the best wildlife viewing from its wide, paved walkways. The entire loop is about 0.8 miles and only takes about 30 minutes to complete so stopping to enjoy the water and wildlife is encouraged on this leisurely path.

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At the start of the Anhinga Trail in The Everglades you find yourself walking alongside a deeper canal lined with tall fakahatchee grass. Off to the left of the paved path boardwalks sprout over the water giving park visitors a chance to enter the grass that makes up the famed River of Grass.

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The wildlife viewing from the Anhinga Trail is surprisingly good for a trail with such small penetration into the wilderness. It was easy to spot birds drying their wings, like the anhinga itself, and alligators enjoying the sun. This trail is definitely worth your time if you are looking for something simple and stress free.

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After finishing our stroll along the Anhinga Trail, we continued along the adjacent path called The Gumbo Limbo Trail. This Everglades trail takes you through the more wooded landscape of the hardwood hammock. As great as it was to get out of the sun on this shaded path, the mosquitos began to swarm! Word to the wise, don’t forget the bug spray even on the short trails.

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Tags: Cypress Trees, Everglades, Florida, Hike, Road Trip, Sight Seeing, Swamp, Travel Blog