Kayaking in the 10,000 islands Everglades National Park.

When most people think of the Florida Everglades, they think of a dark swamp with snakes hanging from every branch and alligators around every corner.  Now to be fair, there are alligators, dark swampy areas,and yes there are some snakes(not on every branch we only see a few each year), but there is another side to the Everglades that most people don't know about, the 10,000 islands.  The  10,000 islands are mangrove islands with not much or any land to walk around on.  If you would walk out unto the island you would have to balance on the roots and swat mosquitoes at the same time(trust me it is hard).  This area is very easy to get lost or turned around in, since everything looks the same.  The fishing and wildlife viewing is great at certain times.  You rarely ever see an alligator in this area during our  kayak season, but you can definitely see the Atlantic-bottle nosed dolphin.  These dolphins come in and go out with the tides feeding and playing.  There are also Manatees in this area, but they are hard to find and not very easy to spot.  If you do see them, there nose looks like a coconut when it comes up to take a breath.  One of the best things about the 10,000 islands are it's isolated florida beaches.  These sandy white beaches are a great place to feel very far away from everything, and also a great place to go camping durning the winter.  There is great tide pooling (looking for creatures at low tide), and great fishing also.  At Shurr Adventures we can arrange overnight trips, or a full day trip where we can paddle out to the islands.  One of my favorite trips that we offer is our 10,000 island sunset trip.  During this trip we weave in and out of the mangroves and end up watching the sunset dipping behind the mangroves as 300 to 500 wading birding come in to rest at night.  If people don't want to paddle near alligators, or have small children, this is the trip that we suggest. The best thing about this area is that we are not that far from Marco island, Naples, or Miami.  I will be posting about our full moon trips. sunrise trips, and full day trips in the 10,000 islands, which we offer from Nov.1 to May 15th in my future blogs.  Please e-mail this blog to a friend or put it on facebook if you liked it.Thanks for reading and please remember I am a guide not an english professor(ha ha).    Justin www.shurradventures.net