Continuing west along the Tamiami Trail from Shark Valley in the Everglades, the road enters the Big Cypress National Preserve. We stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center during our mid-February 2013 trip. Inside the visitor center, we found a theater, bookstore, small exhibit area and very helpful rangers and volunteers. A building closer to the parking area contains restrooms with running water. In front of the visitor center is an elevated boardwalk above the borrow pit for the highway. The resulting canal attracts a variety of wildlife although we mostly saw alligators and an anhinga. Alligators are very efficient swimmers as can be seen in the video below. The road and wind noise was so loud at times that I muted the sound.
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| Oasis Visitor Center |
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| Alligators sunning beside the canal |
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| More alligators in or near the canal |
I had to fill out a backcountry permit to hike a 3-mile loop around the visitor center and landing strip. The hike is a portion of the "Tamiami Triathlon", a promotional effort aimed at getting people off the couch and moving in the great outdoors. The 15-mile Shark Valley bike ride and a canoe trip from Everglades City round out the activities. In selecting a hike for the challenge, the organizers favored a drier route over a more scenic route to promote hiking throughout the year. The route includes an easily accessible portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail (FNST). Unfortunately, the initial 2000 feet or so of the FNST portion is beside the chain-link fence surrounding the airstrip at Oasis. The route then follows the FNST for another 3000 feet before cutting over to the gravel Oasis Off-Road Vehicle Trail and returning to the visitor center.
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| Florida National Scenic Trail alongside the airstrip fence |
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| A palm tree stump |
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| The trail narrow to a footpath |
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| Even in the dry season, the trail crosses wet areas |
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| The trail climbs out of the saw grass and into an area of saw palmetto and sable palm |
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| As the trail continues to climb, pine trees start to appear |
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| The pines get thicker as the elevation rises |
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| The cut through was well marked |
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| The hike returns via the Oasis Off Road Vehicle Trail |
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| A single cypress tree near the gravel road |
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| Saw grass prairie |
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| Cypress hammock |
One of the many unusual plants in the Big Cypress Preserve is the Cardinal Airplant. This is an epiphytic bromeliad. An epiphyte is a plant that grows on another plant, such as a cypress tree. A bromeliad is a plant that grows in the air instead of in soil. Airplants are not parasitic, but only attach themselves to the host plant for support.
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| Cardinal airplant |
The park website is http://www.nps.gov/bicy/index.htm.