Everglades from above
Far away from the paved roads and shimmering megastructures of Downtown Miami, a flat, lush landscape dominates the field of view. Australian pines gently bend in the warm breeze. Cypress domes roll up on the horizon, growing in staggered heights from the marshy wetlands below. Shark Valley is the subtle geographic depression at the mouth of the Shark River, the gateway to one of the world’s richest sanctuaries of biodiversity: the Florida Everglades.
During the dry season, the prairies are caked in limestone; the ground is like an abandoned, gray baseball diamond overrun with weeds. In the wet season, a shallow layer of water slowly trickles through the tall grass. Tropical hardwood hammocks appear like freshly popped green kernels, holding firm on the slightest rises in elevation. Twiggy, fragrant bayheads are full of aromatic bay leaves. Thick, bushy willowheads encase water-filled solution holes – smaller versions of sinkholes – that are home to the American alligator, the keeper of the Everglades.
Info
Address 36000 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33194, +1 305.221.8455, www.sharkvalleytramtours.com | Hours Dec 20-Apr, daily 9am-4pm, May-Dec 19, daily 9:30am-4pm| Tip Drive along Loop Rd in Ochopee and experience the Everglades from your car on arguably the loneliest stretch of road in the country. Largely unpaved and unkempt, it snakes through the old Florida wilderness, where alligators can be seen crossing the road and meandering through overgrown, abandoned settlements.
The deeper into the Everglades you get, the more frequent the appearance of bushy shrubs and gator holes. The land is wetter, the saw grass and cattails grow thicker. In the distance, a unique vantage point for this densely packed biosphere stands above it all. The Shark Valley observation tower shoots through the horizon 45 feet up into the partly cloudy sky like Seattle’s Space Needle. A spiral concrete walkway leads you to the top, where the panorama explodes all around you. The vastness of the grassy brown-and-green flatlands makes the viewer feel insignificant, swallowed by the tremendous expanse of vivacious flora and fauna. Great blue herons fly in the distance, gathering materials to build their nests. Alligators below bask in the sun, congregating en masse during the dry season. Mangroves line the waterways, which show no trace of human activity.
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