Slogging through the Slough

Friday February 8,2013
Site T-15 Flamingo Campground
Everglades National Park

 

We’ve been in Flamingo without internet or phone since February 3.  Here’s where we were able to use the Verizon internet on February 7.  The Coe Visitor’s Center Porch.  40 miles from Flamingo.  Remember, only AT&T in Flamingo.

 

 

After posting 5 blog posts, wishing Carrie a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and doing some other phone business we met the ranger for the Slough Slog.

 

We’re going over there through the slough toward that cypress dome on the far distant right.

 

Getting closer, wandering through dwarf cypress.  The cypress in the “dome” are much taller because the water is deeper and therefore there are more nutrients. Not as much water and not as many nutrients means dwarf cypress.   These little trees are quite likely as old as their nearby taller brothers.   They all have shed their leaves for winter.

 

 

 

We are getting in over the ankles walking through the river of grass

 

Near my knees – cool

 

Our ranger guide is 5’ 4”.  She says this her favorite part of her job!

 

The water here is actually crystal clear but it is impossible to get a shot of how clear the water is since every step we take muddies it up.

 

You can see why Andrew Jackson finally gave up sending troops to Florida to send the Seminole Indians west in the mid 1800’s.  They knew these marshes and how to live within them.  It seems like our first guerilla war here as the troops were often totally lost in these dark swampy waters.  The mosquitoes alone nearly drove the troops crazy and many of them simply refused to continue the fight.  Thus the Seminoles are the only Indian Nation who have never signed a treaty with the US Government.

 

Rapt attention from the hikers.

 

Remember my new favorite plant bladderwort?  It floats on the water and eats mosquito larvae.

 

 

There really is no way to get the true feeling of the cypress dome without walking around in it.

 

 

It’s beauty and magnificence feel like a cathedral.

 

 

 

I’m sorry we have to leave this quiet beautiful spot. I’d love to see it when the cypress are covered with their leaves.  But unfortunately that coincides with mosquito season.  Perhaps I’ll come back in late November or December before they lose all their leaves.

As we start our walk back,  I take my best attempt at a shot to show how clear the water is.  This time it isn’t our stirring up the mud, it’s the reflection of the trees in the water that makes it difficult. 

 

I’m afraid from the picture you can’t tell that this water is not tannin black and reflecting, it is crystal clear.

 

 

Back to drier climes and on home to Flamingo.

 

On the way we catch the sun setting over the River of Grass with a cypress dome in the background.  Another Great Day!