About Everglades National Park: The only subtropical preserve in North America, The Everglades is a wide slow moving river of marsh and saw grass spanning some 4,500 square miles of southern Florida and empties into the mangrove estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay. A kayaker�s dream, The Everglades offers hundreds of canoe trails including The Nine Mile Pond Loop, The Turner River Trail, Chokoloskee Island to Tamiami Trail, Mud Lake Loop Trail and for the truly adventurous the numerous trails through the Wilderness Waterway and Ten Thousand Islands. Synonymous with great bird watching the Everglades are home to some 350 species such as the Roseate Spoonbill, Purple Gallinule, Short Tailed Hawk, Osprey and the Great Blue Heron. Of course a trip to the Everglades wouldn�t be complete without an alligator sighting or three.