First Day in the Everglades

Dear Blog.  Today we got a chance to get out and about.  We did our usual campground walk around this morning and followed a trail out into the Everglades where we found a tree stand.  Here is Kathy sitting on the comfortable bench watching for signs of wildlife.

It is hard to described this part of the Everglades.  There are these immense wet grass prairies with islands of trees every couple of miles.  It is just wide open spaces for miles.

With all that space it is hard to spot any wildlife.  However, we did see some when we got back to camp:

Sunrise and sunset are our favorite times. We sit at our picnic table and just watch the colors change.

As the sun set, the moon rose.

Bye bye sun.  See you tomorrow.

Footnote: We met a couple campers coming back from a walk out into the prairie.  Turns out, they were python hunting. Apparently, Florida has a big problem with pythons in the Everglades. They are considered an invasive species and need to be rounded up.  Florida started a python hunting season and issued over 1,000 licenses so far.  When we asked the two campers how they would kill a python if they caught, they said they would shoot it.  Hmmm.... The Big Cypress Preserve, where our campground is located, is right smack in the middle of prime python territory.  I don't know what scares me more - the fact that there are pythons in the prairie next to us or that half the campers in the campground are packing heat!