Ten Thousand Islands by boat

“There’s more like 14,000 or 16,000 islands,” said our guide, as he scanned the water ahead for signs of dolphins or manatees.

We were on a Ten Thousand Islands cruise out of Everglades Gulf Coast Visitor Center, and it was obvious that were it not for the marked channel, it would be very easy to get lost.

The Everglades National Park boundary sign

Where the waters of Big Cypress and the Everglades meet the Gulf Coast, the Ten Thousand Islands are a maze of mangrove forest.

It’s the second largest mangrove forest in the world, bested only by Bangladesh.

The islands are mostly made of interlocked red mangroves

In this vast nursery of sea life, “land” is what gathers around the prop roots of red mangroves.

Or it’s marl that been dredged up to form berms where a kayaker or boater can set foot on a few square feet.

Pelicans and cormorants on one of the many islands

Our cruise – on which we as Floridians were a rarity, most visitors were from Europe – took 45 minutes from the docks in Everglades City out to the Gulf of Mexico.

After we reached the barrier islands, it was another 45 minutes to return. The captain made sure that when dolphins were spotted, everyone got a good look at them.

Dolphins followed our boat

But it was the shoreline that intrigued us. Indian Key, where the channel markers reached the Gulf, had a beautiful arc of a beach that boaters were enjoying.

A narrow isthmus connected two nearby mangrove islands where we saw manatees.

Ten Thousand Islands Gulf of Mexico — Barrier island where the boating channel meets the Gulf of Mexico

The delight of the trip was this tiny atoll, capped with what was called the “Bonsai” mangrove.

We arrived at the perfect time and tide to frame this unusual rock formation.

Neither of us had ventured into these waters in Everglades National Park before, so a tour was a good introduction.

It requires navigational savvy to tackle by kayak. Depths are shallow, so larger boats must stick with the marked channels.

Large stretches of open water can be daunting

A vast wet wilderness, the Ten Thousand Islands one of Florida’s least explored and most magnificent treasures.

About the Tour

Everglades National Park Boat Tours depart from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center several times a day. Buy tickets in person at the gift shop or in advance online. They also rent kayaks for paddles into the mangrove forest.