Royal Palm Visitor Center — Attraction in Florida City

I am a writer and photographer for National Park Planner and I visited the Everglades in February 2016. After Shark Valley, Royal Palm is my favorite place in the park. A walk along the Anhinga Trail will yield nearly as much wildlife as at Shark Valley. The only problem with Shark Valley is the crowds, as it is the most popular section of the park due to its location right on the Tamiami Trail, making it an easy stop for people who weren’t even planning to see the Everglades. Visitors to Royal Palm are people who have actually gone out of their way to visit the park. I stopped by the Royal Palm Visitor Center multiple times on a Sunday in February and could always find parking, whereas by noon at Shark Valley you may be parking as far as a mile from the entrance.

Royal Palm has one of the only two campgrounds in the park, Long Pine Key Campground. There are no electric or water hook-ups for RVs, so if that is what you need, try the Flamingo Campground (hook-ups at some sites) or stay at the private campgrounds in Homestead.

Rangers run a number of tours in Royal Palm, including my favorite, the Nike Missile Site Tour, the only history-based tour in the park and one of which very few people are aware. Also, if you have a chance to do a swamp walk, which the park calls the “Slough Slog,” don’t miss that. There are a few short trails in the area, but other than the Anhinga Trail, none are special. The longest hike is along the Old Ingraham Highway Trail. Bikes used to be allowed on the trail, but this section of the park is now a Wilderness Area and no wheeled devices are allowed.

Vultures are a problem at both Royal Palm and Flamingo because they love to tear the rubber off of your car. This includes windshield wipers, rubber molding around the windshield, soft tops, and any exposed rubber gaskets. At the Royal Palm Visitor Center tarps are provided, but there are not nearly enough to go around (none are provided at Flamingo). I advise that you bring your own tarp and plenty of bungee cords to strap it to the car. It’s not a guarantee that your car will be victimized, as mine never was and I didn’t have a tarp, but I have witnessed it happen (see photo below) and have talked to a few others who had their vehicles damaged.

For complete information on visiting Everglades National Park, visit National Park...

We visited on a Thursday afternoon in late Dec 2024. We were on a Everglades Institute Tour (tour guide Maria was the best) which was great because we were all given ear pieces to listen to our tour guide. We also noticed a lot of other guests just started following us around and listening to our tour guide.

There was still plenty of spaces in the parking lot when we arrived around 2/3PM. They Visitor Center was open. There were bathrooms on one side and a small store at the other. There are NPS Cancellation Stamps inside the store.

We hiked the Anhinga Trail with our tour guide. We saw both a 6 foot long diamond back rattle snake and a baby cotton mouth within 20 feet of each other right by the first pond near the parking lot. Our tour guide told every to stand back but no one listened and wanted to get closer to take pictures. We just ended up walking away.

There were so many different birds as we walked down. My favorite were the colorful purple gallinule and how they walked on top of the lily pads. There were also plenty of anhingas to see. We saw 3 alligators on our hike on the trail. There was one at the pond next to the parking lot/visitor center and 2 basking side by side at one of the overlooks. We also saw a large soft shell turtle. There was also your typical cormorant, herons, storks and egrets. There was a ton of fish and most recognizable are the gars with their long snouts.

Because we were on a guided tour we couldn't really explore on our own. We really wanted to hike the Gumbo Limbo Trail but it wasn't on our itinerary. So we would most certainly come back here if we were to visit the everglades again. Definitely worth the stop and it's so close to the...

I loved this part of the Everglades. I saw "critters" almost as soon as I got out of my truck. Before heading to the Center, there were birds welcoming me- really squawking, "Get out of my way, I'm flying here!"

When I got to the edge of the water, by the separating wall, there was an alligator floating, minding his/her own business. There are signs to not feed the animals, but the way the fish were staring at me, it seemed they were used to people feeding them, or perhaps they are just used to people wanting to take their pictures. Fish selfie!

Walking the trail I saw a lot of birds and was treated to several alligators taking their time floating on the water under and around the overlook and bridge. There were really cool birds sitting with each other on branches. I loved it!

As I was leaving, an Anhinga (?) was sitting on the rail of the boardwalk sunning itself waiting for it's turn for a bird selfie! It was so comfortable with all the tourists staring and snapping cameras and cellphones.

It is an easy walk that can take around an hour, depending on how many times you stop for pictures. I hope to...