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Everglades National Park, Florida (Photo credit: ajsadeh)

My favorite road visits are through National Parks, millions of acres of pristine wilderness stretching in all directions as far as the eye can see.  No honking horns, high-rise buildings or fast food franchises to jar you alert to human “progress.”  Just by standing still and breathing softly you can become tuned to the world of nature where tiny creatures scurry the ground usually invisible to our awareness.

The terrain at the different parks is as vast as the parks are large and I love being ensconced in the uniqueness of each one. Everglades National Park isn’t what I expected, but then my expectation was based on some fictional combination of alligators and swamps.  Yes, they’re both there but not in my Hollywood-esque

imaginative screenplay.  At least not the part I saw.  Had I taken a canoe ride through back country I might have experienced a different world.  But the one I saw on land bordering sloughs and sink holes and various grasslands and woods was rich with all sorts of species, including alligators.

Just along the Anhinga Trail in Royal Palm I counted 8 species of birds, including some rough-looking vultures, co-habitating in the slough with turtles, schools of fish and alligators of all sizes.  They were intermingled throughout a pond dotted with mangroves, willow reeds and something called Air Trees.  And the thriving ecosystem was abundant with babies of all kinds.  It amazed me that so many animals, some of whom were predators, could live in such harmony together.

there are baby egrets in this mangrove who were just fed by mom

There had to be dozens of visitors ambling along the boardwalk trail elevated a few feet above the slough’s water surface and yet everyone was whispering, allowing nature to do all the talking.  We all weaved our way through weeds, trees and grasses, as though this boardwalk grew here with everything else.  It was a glorious interaction with a thriving world just doing its own thing.

Another unworldly elevated boardwalk trail is the Pa-hay-okee Overlook across the “River of Grass” so aptly named for its paradoxical sensibility.  What looked like a meadow with tall reeds was

actually water with grass growing in it.  Had we stepped into it we would have sunk.  Here the dormant Cyprus Trees tower over its’ grassy neighbors creating a moody environment that inspires visitors to stop in our

tracks and just stare at the elements comprising such a picture.  There is some ground on which darts all kinds of creatures foresting for their food in this unique world.

There are a variety of trails inviting spectators to experience the 9 different ecosystems unique to the Everglades, which like other ecosystems around the world are starting to diminish.  Urban and suburban sprawl contribute to a change in water flow, endangering many species in this glorious spot on earth stretching 1.5 million acres of southern Florida.

It’s vital we continue to protect these earthly treasures.  They’re our precious heritage.

Which National Parks speak to you?