So that's it then. The only miserable part of the trip was the plane ride. Actually, the worst part was when the troglodyte at the Portland Airport made me dump my bug spray because it was in a 4 ounce bottle, not a 3.4 ounce bottle. Eh - there weren't any bugs out anyhow.

I'd say a person can get a pretty good surface experience of the Everglades by going to Shark Valley and taking the tram tour. But that is only a surface experience. And the temptation to go on a airboat ride is pretty strong - all thanks to Gentle Ben - but the roaring noise and speed just aren't our thing.

I wouldn't recommend paddling into the park without a darn good map and GPS system. One mangrove patch pretty much looks like the next. There are no landmarks - it is all just flat flat flat.

All in all, I'd say the money we spent on having David guide us in the Everglades was money well spent. He knows his park, and we got to see things a casual visitor would not have seen.

The Everglades is the strangest place I have seen in the US so far. Reading the history makes you want to cry, but then reading most history should make you want to cry. Books we read in preparation for this trip were:

  • Gladesmen: Gator Hunters, Moonshiners, and Skiffers (The Florida History and Culture Series) by Glen Simmons and Laura Ogden
  • The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition) by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
  • The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald

They are good reading even if you don't visit Everglades National Park, but I recommend you go.There is a world of difference between reading about something and seeing it first hand.

I made up a song about going to the Everglades, it'll be a hit, I am sure:

I'm gonna go to the Everglades
and I'm gonna see an alligator
and it's gonna try and bite me
and I'm gonna say:
No No No!