I mostly came here because it is a national park and visiting it counts towards my
goal of visiting at least 100 of them.
The park has two visitor centers along highway 41. I visited both and in between I
went down highway 29 (at the western edge of the park) to the water's edge. That is
where I saw that people in rundown trailer homes got to live on the water front.
There was one very exquisite old mansion there too.
A WARNING about highway 41 going east-west across southern Florida: it is posted as
60 mph. However, any RV or big truck or a typical Florida driver could decide to
drive 45 - 50 mph and you and many other vehicles will pile up behind that most
considerate driver. And there are very few opportunities to pass because of much
traffic coming the other way. So that 90 mile stretch can take a while to cross.
I saw more people pulled over to the side of highway 41 than I saw pulled over in
either Yellowstone or Grand Tetons. People go nuts for seeing alligators (or they
are fishing or looking at who knows what else). And they just casually meander
across the highway without watching for traffic.