Friday, October 9, 2015

BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE

Friday, October 9 – We had another nice drive today up FL-997 on the Westside of Miami to the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades. The Tamiami Trail is a beautiful road to travel. We are in Ochopee, FL, at Big Cypress National Preserve which is about 30 miles East of Naples, Florida. We are at the Midway Campground. Big Cypress honors the America the Beautiful senior pass which provides 50% off the campground cost. Our site is $15 per night. That's pretty amazing for Florida.

Midway Campground has paved roads and sites with 50 amp electric ONLY. There is a picnic table and grill provided at each site. There is a nice grass berm between the sites which are also nicely spaced. The only draw back could be the mosquitos. The ground is pretty wet as witnesses by the track left in the grass where we went off the road backing into our site.  We are in the Everglades after all. There is a dump station which we already took advantage of getting rid of 7 days of black and gray water from our stay at the Keys Elks Lodge. There is only one other motorhome here. We are scheduled to be here three days if the Deep Woods Off mosquito sprays holds out :-)

Site #13
Midway campground

Midway campground

Looking left. That is our truck parked in the site next to us.Midway campground

Looking right.
Midway campground

The sites are on the outside of the loop with a very nice pond in the middle.

Midway campground

After we completed our set-up procedure, we hopped in the truck and drove down to the Oasis Visitor's Center. We talked to the rangers about some hiking trails but unfortunately other than a one-mile boardwalk, the other hikes have spots where they are under water. Chest high in some areas. Yeah, we want to hike in chest high water in alligator country. :-)

There are several back road driving trails they recommended as an alternative so we took a 16-mile truck tour. We did see a couple gators and quite a few birds. We'll do the board walk another day.

The road for our first truck tour.
Big Cypress National Preserve

Can you see this biggie under the water?gator

What about this one?
gator

Big Cypress National Preserve

Beautiful ducks but have no idea their name.ducks

Beautiful cypress trees.
Big Cypress National Preserve

DSC04622

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!