Everglades National Park - Shark Valley

Since we didn't get to see many alligators during our airboat tour, we decided to go into the Everglades on our own. We went into the Shark Valley entrance and even though the park was closed, we were able to park outside and walk in. It was late afternoon so the temperature was starting to cool and made for a nice walk. It was an easy path to walk on, with water on both sides. Throughout the whole walk we kept checking the water for alligators. We were having such a great time, walking along spotting wildlife. We took a little detour off the main path to a trail just off the road. We were enjoying ourselves listening for bull frogs trying to spot where they were when Larry spotted it. A huge anaconda blocking our path. It was at least 30 feet long and at least a foot wide. It had a small Florida Panther in its grasp, but I knew it was only a matter of time before we were next. This is what I looked like after I was safely away from that savage monster:

Okay, so maybe I exaggerated slightly. The snake may have been slightly smaller than I described. But it could have been poisonous! And there could have been more just waiting to jump out of a tree onto my head! Either way, Larry still has proof of my fear on his arm in the form of nail marks where my nails dug into him as we ran out through the path.

The rest of our experience in the Everglades, went much more smoothly as we walked back through the main path. We spotted some aquatic turtles, a baby alligator and some really big ones! It's crazy how close you can really get to the gators!

Everglades National Park

One of our most anticipated stops on our trip was Everglades National Park. We chose to go to Gator Park for an airboat tour based on their reviews. Since we were coming from Key West, we arrived there late and almost missed their last tour. The place was pretty cool, with a bunch of peacocks and chickens wandering the grounds, which kind of confused us as birds and gators don't really mix. We got there just in time to watch the last of the "alligator show" which was basically a guy that looked like Denzel Washington shoving different size alligators in our faces, trying to scare us. It was a little corny but there was a scary point where he stuck his hand in the alligator's mouth and just as he took if out, the alligator snapped down just missing his hand.

We were excited to see alligators but didn't realize how beautiful the Everglades would be. You could see for miles around, making you forget that we were only a few miles away from the dock. We saw a lot of aquatic turtles, birds and plant life during the slow portion of the tour. Once we sped up, our guide started to do donuts in the water! Sometimes it felt like we were just going to flip over into the poisonous snake and alligator filled water. At one point in the tour, the guide turned the boat off and actually GOT IN the poisonous snake and alligator filled water and pushed the boat around. Unfortunately (for us, not the guide in the water), the water was unusually high and it was mating season so we only saw a few alligators. 

High right!!

I write this with sore arms from an intense white water rafting experience. But more about that in a little. This morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies and surrounded by giant rocks that we didn’t have a chance to see since we were so worried about setting up the tent the night before. 

The view from inside our tent in the morning.

After some coffee and a silly Yosemite Sam photo shoot we headed over to the white water rafting place.

And then we saw a bear!

At the white rafting place we put on a wetsuit, wool sweater, air breaker, life vest and helmet. We looked pretty ridiculous. Soon our training started and the guy explained what to do in case you FELL OUT OF THE RAFT. Yeah. After I wiped the terrified look off my face we went down to where the raft was which was where we first stepped into the freezing cold water. We practiced some paddling and things he may yell at us throughout the trip, and just like that we were off. We were a crew of 7 including the guide, and we chose the last two seats because I was so nervous.  The river started off relaxing but in no time we were in level 3 rapids (on a scale of 1-5!). We got through the first set with no problems. We then we went through a series of levels 2-3 where we lost a crew member, but he was quickly picked up and got back in the boat. After about 10 miles of rapids we stopped for lunch on the river where we had sandwiches and got to warm our feet up a little. After lunch, we went through some nice calm waters as we digested and prepared for what was to come. Larry moved to the front of the boat and I stayed way back in the third row :) The instructor briefed us again on a few safety procedures and before we knew it we were in the biggest rapids we’d seen yet. Every time the huge waves crashed, I would quickly scan the boat to make sure everyone was still on. One time, during “Split Rock” where the water goes on either side of a large rock, the same guy from before was thrown off the boat once again. Another time when we were in perfectly still water, Larry inexplicably fell off. It was really exciting and fun and overall a great experience.

Guess where we are tonight..

Yosemite

Next we hit the road for Yosemite National Park. On the way we went from seeing 5 feet of snow on the side of the road to lots of orange groves and open fields.

 After climbing several thousand feet we went through a loooong tunnel and came out to see Yosemite Valley out in the distance. We could see Yosemite falls, Half Dome and El Capitan. There was even a rainbow at the bottom of Yosemite Falls. 

Then we headed down to do one of the trails to Bridalveil Falls but unlike trails in Zion, the trail was paved and only took 10 minutes to get to! It was beautiful but fuh-reezing so we ran out of there.

After exploring the park some more we decided to hike a trail that led to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake was like nothing we had ever seen before. That’s because we never found it. :)

We walked along the Merced River (Pronounced Merce-ed.. we’re not sure why things are said so weird here) and spent most of the time looking for the perfect hiking stick to take home. It was really beautiful and I already started to get sad we weren’t going to be there for much longer. We planned a white water rafting for the next morning, which didn’t leave us much more time to explore Yosemite. 

We were on the way out of the park when Larry decided to ask the ranger if there were any campsites still available. The man said yes! We paused for a second because we had intended to catch up on blogging and not smell anymore but decided we wouldn’t have a chance to do this again. (Not to mention it was $5/person!) 

We turned around and flew back to the park as it was getting dark and we wouldn’t have much sunlight to set up the tent. The light was almost all gone when we got the campsite so we grabbed only the important things and ran to an open site. We thought it was weird that there was no one there but it was pick-your-own site and we didn’t have time to think about it. By the time we set up our tent it was pitch black and we hadn’t eaten anything all day so we grabbed a light and went to the lodge for dinner. The restaurant was really nice with a big fire in the middle and great circulation so no one would notice our smells (Just kidding…kinda).

When we got back to our campsite we realized we needed to do something with our food that was in the car because bears are a serious concern in Yosemite. 

Unfortunately, the main locker had a lock on it and our campsite didn’t have one… weird. Getting worried that we were going to wake up to a destroyed car, we started asking the few people that were still around their campfires if they knew why our site didn’t have a locker. At closer inspection we found that our site was actually a monument for Columbia Rock, which broke some sort of barrier for hikers everywhere. We asked our neighbors if we could use their lockers and they told us we would soon be getting kicked out by rangers if we didn’t move to a designated campsite and invited us over to theirs. We ran to the car and grabbed everything that could be bear food (that includes toiletries, make-up and even chapstick!) and stored it in the locker. Phew! We’ve had really great luck with our neighbors this trip. We fell asleep looking up from our tent into the stars. (Still no shooting star!)