Yeah, I know, your knowledge of the facts about Everglades National Parks can be summed up in two words: Gators, and Swamp… Well, you better read some more…
Here are the Everglades fun facts!
Guide to Everglades
Everglades Fun Facts
fact #1: Everglades National Park is not a swamp!
No, Everglades is not a swamp, and when you get your feet wet tromping through the park’s backcountry, you’ll see that the water is crystal clear in many places. People actually snorkel in the backcountry. Nope, not a swamp at all.
In fact, this is a massive, slow moving river, a “river of grass” as park proponent Marjory Stoneman Douglass termed it in her 1947 book of that name. The water may only move a few feet per day, thanks to the minute elevation differences between the water’s source and the Florida Bay, but it is moving. Thus, not a swamp.
fact #2: Everglades National Park is the 3rd largest park in the Lower 48.
This place is huge! More than 1.5 million acres are covered by the park, and if you add the adjacent Big Cypress Preserve to the north, there are more than 2.5 million acres of protected land in South Florida. That is an area the size of Yellowstone. Yep, Huge!
fact #3: Everglades National Park is home to the longest unbroken chain of mangrove forest in the Western Hemisphere.
There are mangroves everywhere here. In fact, you’ll probably get your fill of them. But these trees are amazing and their roots provide habitat for countless numbers of fish. Furthermore, these trees are actually land builders, due to their unique root system, which propels the trees above the water by roots that appear to reach out of the water like fingers. Dirt and debris gets caught in these roots, and eventually solidifies into soil. Just like that, new land!
fact #4: Everglades National Park is the only place on the planet where Alligators and Crocodiles live together.
No animal is more synonymous with the Everglades than the American Alligator. These prehistoric creatures are everywhere down here. Along the coastal areas, where the brackish waters of the Everglades provide an adequate mixture of salt and freshwater, they share their habitat with the salt water Crocodile, another remnant from ancient times.
Everglades Stat Sheet
established: December 6, 1947 as Everglades National Park
rank of admission: 26
size: 1,509,000 acres
rank in size: 10
annual visitation: 2018 – 597,124
rank in visitation: 34
time zone: Eastern Time
park phone: 305 242 7700
Guide to Everglades
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