Tamiami Trail

There's a long stretch of U.S. 41 (originally known as the Tamiami Trail) that traverses the Everglades, Big Cypress National Preserve, and Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, while connecting Florida's west coast to Miami. The road was conceived in 1915 to link Miami to Fort Myers and Tampa, but when it finally became a reality in 1928, it cut through the Everglades and altered the natural flow of water as well as the lives of the Miccosukee tribe who were making a living fishing, hunting, farming, and frogging here. The landscape is surprisingly varied, changing from hardwood hammocks to pinelands, then abruptly to tall cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss and back to sawgrass marsh. Slow down to take in the scenery and you'll likely be rewarded with glimpses of alligators sunning themselves along the banks of roadside canals and hundreds of waterbirds, especially in winter. The man-made portion of the landscape includes Native American villages and airboats parked at roadside enterprises. Between Miami and Naples the road goes by several names, including Tamiami Trail, U.S. 41, Ninth Street in Naples, and, at the Miami end, Southwest 8th Street/Calle Ocho. This is where you will find the only national park–approved Everglades airboat tours: Coopertown, Everglades Safari Park, and Gator Park. Other airboat tours do not take you inside the park and are generally frowned upon by environmentalists.