Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tamiami Trail
Calle Ocho, in Miami's Little Havana happens to be the eastern end of the Tamiami Trail/
US 41, which cuts through the Everglades to the Gulf of Mexico. So go west, young trav-
eler, along US 41, a few dozen miles and several different worlds away from the city
where the heat is on. This trip leads you onto the northern edges of the park, past long
landscapes of flooded forest, gambling halls, swamp-buggy tours, roadside food shacks
and other Old Florida accoutrements.
Past Hialeah, Miami fades like a trail of diminishing Starbucks until…
whoosh
…it's all
huddled forest, open fields and a big canal off to the side (evidence of US 41's diversion of
the Glades' all-important sheet flow). The surest sign the city is gone and the Glades have
begun is the Confederate flag decals on
Pit BBQ
, which serves decent if not memorable
smoked pork and dishes of that ilk. The empty road runs past the
Miccosukee Resort &
r Dec-Mar/Apr-Nov $150/120;
aW
)
. It's essentially a casino-hotel complex full of slot ma-
chines and folks chunking coins into them - not really an ecological wonderland. Rooms
have attractive geometric Native American designs worked into the furniture, but again,
there's no need to stay here unless you're gambling.
As you head west you'll see fields and fields of pine forest and billboards advertising
swamp tours. Airboat tours are an old-school way of seeing the Everglades (and there is
something to be said for getting a tour from a raging Skynyrd fan with killer tatts and bet-
ter camo), but there are other ways of exploring the park as well.
Shark Valley
1
Sights & Activities
Shark Valley
PARK
25°45'27.60; car/cyclist $10/5;
h
9:15am-5:15pm;
pc
)
S
Shark Valley sounds like it should be the headquarters for the villain in a James Bond
movie, but it is in fact a slice of National Park Service grounds heavy with informative
