February 11-12, 2018 Big Cypress Swamp, Florida

There was a seafood festival in Everglade City so we decided to go. The line to get into started 5 miles from the festival, so we turned around and went to the Crab Cafe instead.

There were lots of bikers at the Crab Cafe. Behind the cash register on the saw it says You saw it here Ochopee, Fla. There were lines at the restrooms. I saw there two potties on the patio next to the closed gas station next door, John says it is a potio!

88 degrees, humid we decided to to a wet hike. In the wet season this area is covered by a few inches plus sheet of water all heading to the Everglades, then the gulf. It is dry season now so it is mostly dry, or mud or pockets of water. We headed into a cypress dome, it is a depression in the limestone that retains water year round and cypress trees grow taller than the surrounding area. It is full of absolutely clear water and lots of greenery. John in the dome.

A stump in the dome, gulf fritillary butterfly and lance leaved arrowhead white flowers. Very green. The cypress are conifers, but deciduous so their needles turn red and fall off in the fall, that is what is floating on the water.  

Purple pickerel weed in the dome, red milkweed and fine leaved white top sedge on the dry plain. The water is crystal clear, the water is mid calf deep here-you can see where you are walking.

Me standing in the clear water. John behind some cypress. The plants attached to the cypress are air plants, they get their nutrients from photosynthesis and water from the air(humidity) Many are orchids. 

John took this of me in the yellow flowers and air plants.

John with a huge cypress knee. The knees are part of the cypress roots.And John walking in the dome. 

A quill leaf blooming- one of the air plants. John photographing a pickerel weed flower. 

These flowers and bug were seen on the walk up Skillet Strand. Black and yellow bug, white and yellow flowers, spider lily, tree ear. Purple lobelia, red maple seeds, orange poppy and another spider lily. 

We walked up Skillet Strand looking for more domes but the foliage was too thick so we gave up. John in the bushes. White flower, another view of the purple lobelia and a yellow pea flower.  

Yellow common primrose willow, and two views of a queen butterfly.