Glades Images

Last week JR and I went to the Everglades and cruised down to Flamingo. There was much more water in the glades than when I last visited, almost exactly two years ago. As a result, the critters were dispersed...most of the glades were under at least a few inches of water so it was not necessary for the animals to congregate around water holes. Nevertheless, there were gators. This one is right by the main highway, with water only a couple feet in back of him. At Flamingo, we saw a crocodile, much rarer in the US. I took pix of him but he was across the water and without a megazoom lens, you don't get a good look at him. It was a good sized croc...we reckoned about a 12 footer.

We walked a boardwalk that went thru the mangroves and then out over the water of West Lake, not far from Flamingo on the Gulf. The mangroves are always cool with their hoop dress style roots.

This butterfly was not in the glades; it was perched in John MacArthur State Park, in Palm Beach county. But I thought it was cool...there were many of them in the forest just inland from the beach.

I was going to say the butterfly was just mauka from the beach, but I realized there are no mountains inland from the beach in Florida. Except...for this one! In the distance is Mount Trashmore, standing sentinel over South Florida. It towers about 200 feet above the surrounding landscape, visible for miles as it soars into the tropical skies. It is, of course, composed entirely of garbage, with a bit of dirt tossed on the top. It's in the southern Miami metro area, near Homestead.