Flamingo Visitor Center

Hurricane Katrina

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.

Flamingo

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:

• egrets
• ibis

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.