Everglades National Park Florida

The Everglades Was Originally Slated to Be Drained. One Person’s Book Changed That.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was 79 years old when she was called back to active conservation work to fight for the Everglades in the 1960s. She spent the remaining 29 years of her life at it. Her 1947 book “The Everglades: River of Grass” had reframed the public understanding of the ecosystem from “useless swamp” to a functioning slow-moving river, and the phrase she coined for it became the defining term. Without that reframing, the wholesale drainage and development that was proceeding throughout South Florida would likely have consumed the park itself. In December 2025, the National Park Service opened the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center in Everglades City, replacing the previous building destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017 and elevating the new structure to meet coastal resiliency standards.

The Everglades is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, covering 1.5 million acres in the southern tip of Florida. It functions as a very shallow, very slow-moving river roughly 60 miles wide and only inches deep, flowing from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay. The ecosystem is genuinely unlike anything else in North America, and the management challenge has never been fully resolved: water flow, agricultural runoff from surrounding farmland, and urban expansion continue to affect the park’s health, and large-scale restoration efforts have been ongoing since the 1990s.

Entrance Fees and Access

The standard vehicle entrance fee is $35, valid for seven days, and covers all occupants of the same car. There is a new 2026 non-resident fee of $100 for visitors aged 16 and older who are not Florida residents, payable in addition to the vehicle fee unless you hold an America the Beautiful Pass (the annual America the Beautiful Non-Resident Pass costs $250 and covers all US national parks). An annual Everglades-specific pass costs $70.

The park has three main entrance points: the main entrance near Homestead (connecting to the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center), the Shark Valley entrance (on the northern edge off US-41/Tamiami Trail), and the Gulf Coast entrance near Everglades City. Each provides access to a distinct section of the park and is not particularly close to the others; visiting more than two in a single day is ambitious.

Where to Start: The Main Entrance and Anhinga Trail

The Anhinga Trail at the Royal Palm area, accessible from the main entrance road, is the best single stop for first-time visitors. The paved boardwalk runs 0.8 miles through sawgrass marsh and cypress habitat and reliably delivers close encounters with anhingas (the fish-diving birds it is named for), herons, egrets, turtles, and alligators year-round. The wildlife density here on a quiet winter morning is extraordinary by the standards of any national park. Arrive at opening time and you will often see alligators sleeping on the boardwalk itself.

The best time of year is dry season, November through April, when water levels drop, concentrating wildlife at remaining water sources and making the trails accessible. From May through October, South Florida’s wet season brings intense afternoon thunderstorms, higher humidity, and dramatically increased mosquito activity. Visiting in summer is possible but requires proper insect repellent and an acceptance of heat indexes that regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shark Valley

Shark Valley on the park’s northern edge is accessed via US-41, the Tamiami Trail, and is approximately 35 miles west of Miami. The main attraction is a 15-mile paved loop road through open sawgrass prairie with a 65-foot observation tower at the midpoint. Most visitors do the loop by rented bicycle (around $20 per day from the visitor centre concession) or by the two-hour tram tour (approximately $30 per adult, advance booking recommended). The density of alligators along this loop, visible from the road and clearly untroubled by bicycles and trams, is higher than almost anywhere else in the park.

The tram tour booking fills up weeks ahead in peak season (December through March). If you want to bicycle independently, the loop is flat and manageable for anyone reasonably fit, though the noon heat in any season is severe and there is minimal shade on the prairie section.

Ten Thousand Islands and the Gulf Coast

The western section of the park, reached via Everglades City approximately 90 miles southwest of Miami, gives access to the Ten Thousand Islands, a mangrove archipelago where the land dissolves into brackish water in a pattern that makes navigation without local knowledge or GPS genuinely difficult. Kayak and canoe trips through the mangrove tunnels here are among the most distinctive experiences in the park, with the Wilderness Waterway canoe route covering 99 miles from Everglades City to Flamingo.

Guided kayak tours operate out of Everglades City and from the Flamingo area on Florida Bay. Fishing here (snook, redfish, tarpon) is excellent and requires a Florida fishing licence.

Where to Eat

Inside the park, food options are limited to the Flamingo area on Florida Bay, which has a small cafe. Outside the park, Homestead (the main gateway town on the eastern side, about 45 minutes south of Miami) has a range of casual restaurants serving Florida standards: seafood, Cuban food, and American diner fare. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida operates restaurants and airboat tours along the Tamiami Trail near the Shark Valley entrance; the airboat rides are a legitimate way to see open water areas inaccessible by trail.

Where to Stay

The Flamingo Campground inside the park sits on Florida Bay and allows tent camping and RV hookups; reservations through Recreation.gov are essential from November through April. In Homestead, a range of chain hotels and independent motels operates within a 20-minute drive of the main entrance. For the western section and Gulf Coast access, Everglades City has small lodges and guesthouses with a fishing-camp character.

Getting There

Miami International Airport is the main gateway, about 40 miles from the Homestead entrance and 70 miles from Shark Valley. There is no public transport into the park. A car is essential. From Miami, the drive to the main entrance via the Florida Turnpike and US-1 through Homestead takes about one hour. To Shark Valley via I-836 west to US-41 takes about 45 minutes but the road through the Everglades section of US-41 has no services for long stretches.

Practical Reality

The Everglades is easy to underestimate as a visitor destination. It looks flat and featureless from the road and reveals its character slowly. The standard first visit involves Anhinga Trail, a short section of the main park road to Flamingo, and a view of Florida Bay at the end. That covers perhaps 10 percent of what is accessible. Shark Valley and the Gulf Coast section require separate day trips and different driving routes. For visitors with three or more days, the combination of all three sections, starting with the dry season morning at Anhinga Trail, gives a genuine sense of what the ecosystem actually is.