Day 358 (Everglades)

We made it to the Everglades today. The original plan was to just get a room at a hotel and call it a night, but we got here around 5, so we decided to check it out. The national park system is amazing; the diversity is breathtaking! There's the beautiful arid barrenness of the Badlands in South Dakota, and then there's the wonderfully wet swamps in the Everglades. We didn't spend all that much time there, because we did still need to find a place to stay for the night, but here are some pictures that show just how wet the park actually is:

To top it off, we saw two alligators! This first one was just some bubbles slowly rising to the surface, but as we watch, it rose up and started floating on top! I only got this one good picture 'cuz it swam away so fast. I think all the people were making too much noise for it.

We saw this second one as we were about to leave. I have tons of pictures this time 'cuz it just swam slowly along the pathway as we followed. Luckily, it didn't try to come up on the pathway, although it was keeping a very sharp eye on us!

PICTURE OF THE DAY: