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Become a Friend of the Everglades

Become a Young Friend of the Everglades

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Visit the Everglades National Park

Shark Valley Visitor Center

Big Cypress National Preserve

Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center

Corkscrew Swamp

Friends of Fakahatchee Visit the Orchid Swamp

Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours

Arthur R. Mitchell Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Florida Museum of Natural History

THE DAY I MET THE EVERGLADES

A visit to Marjory's Favorite Trail, the Pahayokee, in the Everglades National Park

In April 2015 my family and I visited the Everglades National Park for the first time.

As the sun rose higher, the colors grew more vivid. The vast flatness of the sawgrass made the sky appear to be even higher. Even the wind felt different. It was unobstructed by tall trees. and after having travelled along the vast prairie it felt as if I, too, would be swept into the heavens above. The stark whiteness of the ibis and egrets pierced the bright blue above as black vultures circled overhead. My daughter’s sharp eye spied a family of endangered wood storks that had gathered in the brush. She grabbed her binoculars to observe.

Along the Ahninga Trail crocodiles lounged. The ahningas spread their wings in the sun as great blue herons rustled among the mangroves and purple gallinules swished between the water lilies. The cabbage and royal palms swayed. The red tillandsia flowers jutted out from a firework explosion of green spidery leaves and the reddish barks of the gumbo limbo trees peeled to reveal brightly colored tree snails and scurrying anoles.

We walked the Pinelands, Pay-hay-okee, Mahogany Hammock, and West Lake trails and headed south toward Flamingo to look for manatees, which my daughter had wanted to see in the wild since she was a little girl. The ranger informed us that the sea mammals had left for the season. My daughter’s disappointment broke my heart and an enormous, warm rain poured upon us. My son grabbed hid rod and reel. My daughter looked longingly into the dark water still hoping to spy a sea cow.

Her brother called to her. He had spotted something near where she stood. It wasn’t a fish. A whiskered snout rose out of the water to refresh itself with the rain that poured from the dock. My daughter’s joy was boundless. Other manatees joined, soon there were four, a family just like us.

A silvery sun emerged after the rain. Full of excitement we drove north toward Paurotis Pond. The tarpons leapt and broke the still surface of the water. My son cast his lure expertly toward the ripples. The bright pink feathers of roseate spoonbills brightened the grey sky and the tops of the mangroves, where they built their nests. The humid air was alive with the squawking and singing of hundreds of birds.

As the sky threw handfuls of diamonds into the coming darkness, the ever changing water continued its slow, journey south beneath the hundreds of thousands of acres of saw grass that disappeared into the night.

That day I experience for a few moments how the natural world around us used to be. When we returned to the lights and traffic of Homestead, I wondered who had been instrumental in preserving and protecting this wilderness for my family to experience. Along with Ernest Coe I discovered Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Now, ten years later my book has been published.

I dedicate this book to my late husband, my best friend and fellow adventurer and our beautiful children, who have showered my life with love and beauty as vast and magnificent as the River of Grass itself.

I thank my editor, Christy Ottaviano, for her support and guidance as we navigated the difficult tale of Florida's River of Grass.