The Gulf Coast Visitor Center is the spot where the Everglades brush up against the Gulf of Mexico, located near the remote outpost of Everglades City, about 2.5 hour drive west of Miami. There are also touristy attractions and enticements along the way, but it’s a remote drive, sometimes a little monotonous if you’re not really into driving.
The Royal Palm Visitor Center is located about four miles inside the Everglades National Park entrance from Homestead. There are walking trails here that are worth visiting even if you’ve already spent time at the larger Ernest Coe Visitor Center. Each trail is half a mile long and offers interpretive signs. After viewing some of the unusual Everglades flora and fauna, you may have questions, and the interpretive signs do a good job of answering some of the most frequently asked questions. For example, you’ll learn about why the strangler fig has such a deadly name. Mostly the trails are wheelchair accessible. There are also rangers here at the Royal Palm Visitor Center, who lead educational walks along the trails, year-round.
signs marking the trails, and easy pull-off spots for your car. They make it easy to explore and get outside your car to see the wildlife and the plants that make up the Everglades National Park.
This trail is half a mile long.
It’s also half a mile long.
The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center is at the Southern entrance to the Park, located just outside of Homestead/Florida City. If you’re on your way the the Florida Keys, Homestead is the last stop before the mainland ends and the Keys begin, at the tip of the country. This entrance is very convenient for people driving from Miami, because the entrance to the park is literally just outside Homestead/Florida City. No long road to drive before you get to the entrance, like at Shark Valley. There are walking trails galore in here, and you’ll see tons of wildlife as you walk. The Pa-hay-okee Overlook Trail boasts a boardwalk and observation tower where you’re likely to see hawks and all sorts of other native birds.
The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center was recently expanded and it’s now the best place to get info about your visit to Everglades National Park. Learn about boat rentals, tours, trail maps, wildlife, activities. You can also enjoy films, interactive displays and a thoroughly-stocked modern gift shop in this state of the art Visitor Center. Just down the road is the Royal Palm Visitor Center, which was designed to teach you about the nature of the Everglades, and is the starting point of two trails, the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Trail.
Hurricane Katrina did lots of damage to the Flamingo Visitor Center, dumping mud everywhere. Call ahead for what’s open before you visit, but it is now open. The concession and gift shop are not open yet, and there are no boat rentals or boat tours either.
Before there was the Flamingo Visitor Center, was once a tiny isolated fishing village looking out into Florida Bay. Before roads were built into the Everglades, Flamingo was accessible only by boat. There have always been fishermen here, even when boat was the only way to get here. Flamingo sits on the edge of Florida Bay, which originally containted outflow from the entire region of Southern Florida, and was therefore rich in nutrients and in life. The shallow flats waters in front of Flamingo harbor millions of baby fish each year, and you could really consider the area a fish nursery. Fishing was always great here, and still is. Today, there are
lots of flats fishing charters out of the Flamingo Visitor Center, where there is also a Park-run marina and concession. There’s a gift shop and campground, and there used to be a motel. After Hurricane Katrina, however, the motel has had to close.
You can go on a canoe trip from the visitor center, and this is a great place to go canoeing. There are myriad mangrove trails and nooks and crannies to explore. The wilderness canoe trips are one of the best ways to explore the Everglades, if you’ve already done the airboat rides, or if you prefer a quiet approach to nature.
Another way to learn about the Everglades is to sign up for a ranger-led walk. Ask about these in the Flamingo Visitor Center…they happen frequently. If you’re camping at Flamingo, consider one of their campfire programs as a way to learn about the Everglades.
Take a short walk to Eco Pond, where all bird-lovers must visit if coming to Flamingo. Birds that are known to take a rest at Eco Pond include:
Boat trips from Flamingo Visitor Center are usually flats fishing trips, since this is some of Florida’s best flats fishing, due to the wealth and richness of Florida Bay’s ecosystem, now protected by law. But other boat trips you can take from Flamingo would include sunset cruises, or trips to Cape Sable, which covers the southwestern tip of the peninsula of Florida. Sable is French for sand, and if you take a boat tour to Cape Sable you’ll see why it’s named this. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico constantly wash and pull back this exposed tip of Florida, which juts out ever so slightly into the Gulf. The years have created sand…sany beaches, which are unusual for this part of Florida. There are actually campsites dotting the coast of Cape Sable, but they are part of the Everglades National Park Wilderness Waterway, which is a canoe path along the southwest inner coast of the tip of Florida.
Shark Valley Visitors Center
