Royal Palm

Royal Palm is an area within the Everglades National Park near Homestead in Florida and is approximately 75 miles from Miami. The Royal Palm Visitor Center is open all year round from 8am to 4.15pm and is a starting point for two of the parks trails. The area is also four miles west of the main park entrance at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center.

This area of the park is so called because of the towering palms found here of which the Royal Palm is the tallest. The wetlands in this area are surrounded by lots of sawgrass and lily pads and the man made canal here is always full of water, even in the dry season. This is a good area to sport wading birds such as herons and the trees provided good perches for ibis and anhinga.

There are two trails within Royal Palm and hikers can purchase insect repellant from the visitor center, which is advisable for visitors especially in the summer. The Anhinga Trail is a 1,200 meter self guiding round trip through sawgrass marsh and enables hikers to see alligators, turtles, anhinga, herons, egrets and other birds. The Gumbo Limbo Trail also starts here and is just a 600 meter round trip taking visitors through a hammock of gumbo limbo trees, royal palms, ferns and air plants.