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Tree Dude
May 26, 2012

AND MY SONG IS...
I plan to camp at established campgrounds, do some hiking, hopefully some scuba/snorkeling and anything else cool I can find. I tend to not do a whole lot of planning but right now I'm looking at a couple days camping the Everglades, doing something in Biscayne just to check it off a National Parks list (is this even practical without my own boat?), a trek down the keys probably finding a place or two to dive, and an overnight at Dry Tortugas.

I'm looking for any tips to this end including can't miss hikes, good photo ops, things that are slightly out of the way that I should probably make time for, good dive sites/companies I can charter for that would be appropriate for someone with a basic cert and hasn't been diving in a couple years, equipment I might not think to bring... Anything you think I should know, really!

Thanks!

edit: I'd also be open to any suggestions for non-food/alcohol/nightlife things to do in Miami but that's not really the focus of this sub.

Tree Dude fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Nov 23, 2016

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lavaca
Jun 11, 2010
There is not a lot of hiking in the Everglades. The one long-ish trail is now unmaintained due to an endangered plant that grows in the area. What you may want to do instead is rent a bike and ride around at Shark Valley. It's a great place to see wildlife and there's an observation tower halfway through that will reveal just how flat the area is. The drawback is that Shark Valley is a very long way from Flamingo and not really close to anything else unless you are doing a kayak trip in the Ten Thousand Islands or Big Cypress. You probably want to hire a guide or make friends with a local if you are going to explore that area because otherwise you will almost certainly get lost in the mangrove tunnels.

Flamingo is the one place in Florida where I have seen a crocodile. The American ones aren't particularly scary. If you are camping out there, I highly recommend visiting Royal Palm at sunset to see all the birds that roost there for the night (assuming they haven't found a new place to sleep since 2013).

A nice place in the Keys to sit next to the water and relax for a while is Islamorada near Tea Table Key. If the tides are right, the water is very dramatic in the area. Further down the road, Bahia Honda is a nice beach because you can jump in the water on both sides of the island. They are more different than that sounds. Big Pine Key is the one island you can drive to that has anything even remotely resembling wilderness. There are some trails in the middle of the island and the Blue Hole is worth a short stop. Your odds of seeing a key deer in the wilderness are about the same as seeing a key deer hanging out in the Winn-Dixie parking lot. Someone else will have to tell you about diving or Dry Tortugas.

Biscayne has a visitor center near Homestead. That's the only place you can visit without a boat.

IronDoge
Nov 6, 2008

I literally just came back from a trip from the Everglades/Miami. Like the other guy said, there is much for long hikes. There's free ranger-guided tours that will take you on a wet-walk into a cypress dome along with the other marked trails on their map. There's another tour of the Nike missile base, which I thought was super cool. I paid for a day long trip from a local tour guide from these guys. They'll take you on some kayak tours and take you off marked kayak trails to explore the maze-like mangroves in some areas. One kayak trip will be in the Nine Mile Pond which is pretty neat to explore. Their guides are super knowledgeable and I'd highly recommend them (you will get lost otherwise). They also kayak around the Flamingo visitor center where you'll see crocs, manatees, and may some dolphins. Usually you'll arrive at Flamingo during low-tide so you'll see lots of different birds show up to feed on the exposed seagrass beds as well. Keep in mind for the wet walks you're going to be walking on very unique terrain. Water can get up to your waist and the ground is a layer of mud/plant matter on top of an old coral bed (you can feel the knobbly parts of the ancient reef when walking on it). You'll want long pants you don't mind getting dirty and water shoes. I brought my hiking pants so I could switch from long pants to shorts whenever I wanted.

About an hour or so north there's the Shark Valley entrance to the Everglades. It's a 15 mile bike trail (or a tram if you are lazy), which will take you 2-3 hours to bike. You'll see alligators every 30 feet here. Some even hang out on the bike path so you'll have to keep an eye out. The bikes they rent are pretty beat to crap fixies with backward-pedal brakes and I guarantee your rear end is going to hurt at the end of the trip. It's a good ride though! Since it's so far north, I spent the second half of my day in Miami kayaking. I rented from this guy. I'd recommend the 2-hour rental so you can explore some of the farther islands in the bay. He has a map setup and he'll point out where you'll want to paddle.

I tried to plan for Biscayne Bay but my lack of sea kayaking experience combined with the apparent lack of rental companies around the area kind of stalled those plans. One of the suggested activities by the NPS is to paddle a 5 mile stretch to one of the islands, but I wasn't about to do that solo for my first time. Not sure how worth it is to paddle out to those islands in Biscayne, but yeah you're going to need a boat/kayak.

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