Directions to Everglades National Park
The Entrances
Everglades National Park has three entrances from land and one main entrance area with facilities from the water. These are:
- Gulf Coast Visitor Center, on the northwest tip of the Park
- Shark Valley Visitor Center, on the northern central edge of the Park
- Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, on the eastern edge of the Park
- Royal Palm Visitor Center, just a few miles inside the Homestead entrance to the Park, after Ernest Coe Visitor Center
- Big Cypress National Preserve Visitor Center, in Big Cypress National Preserve, next to Everglades National Park
- Flamingo Visitor Center, on the southern coast, accessible by water and via Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center
Each of these entrances and visitor centers offers a different angle on the Everglades, and depending on where you’re driving from, and what you plan to do, each one offers different activities as well.
Royal Palm Visitor Center
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.
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Gumgo-Limbo Trail
This trail is half a mile long.
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Anhinga Trail
It’s also half a mile long.
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Pa-hay-okee Overlook
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Pineland Trail
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Mahogany Hammock Trail
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West Lake Trail