Everglades & Lake Okeechobee

Had a fun little trip down to the Everglades.

I stopped at Lake Okeechobee on the way down around sunset and got a few really nice photos. It was really peaceful watching the boats and birds. I'll have to come back sometime and do the bike path around the lake.

I made an early trip into the Everglades around the Big Cypress area hoping for a good sunrise, but it ended up being too cloudy to get much more than some nice colors.

On this trip I was able to visit:

• Big Cypress Oasis center which had a nice little boardwalk, and connects to part of the Florida Trail if you want to do some hiking.

• Big Cypress Swamp where I got the photo of the little blue heron

• Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk which has a nice boardwalk trail through some dense vegetation which provides some very nice views

• Loop Road which is a nice dirt road you can drive down if it's too hot, or if hiking just isn't your thing

The wilderness in this area is impressively dense and full of wildlife this time of year. There were tons of herons, anhingas, cormorants, and egrets.

I started heading over to the Anhinga trail in the afternoon, but apparently I had too much sun and hiking in the morning and ended up just parking and taking a nap before doing dinner with my friend Amy.