Alligator Alley and Collier-Seminole State Park

Jett wanted to see “Alligator Alley” – the 80-mile stretch of I-75 that runs east/west between Naples and Miami. It is, in fact, the longest stretch of east/west interstate highway with a north/south (i.e., odd) route number in the country. A useless fact that perhaps you will find somewhat interesting…

So it was Jett’s idea to add it to our “bucket list” of things to do before we left Fort Myers. Then she went north to visit relatives, so I ended up doing the trip myself. Or, more accurately, did it accompanied only by Rusty the Wonder Dog.

Truth be told, I only drove about 25 miles of “Alligator Alley” then drove south on FL 29 to Everglades City (nothing to see there), then made a stop at Collier-Seminole State Park. About three hours of driving that Jett would have hated, so it is probably a good thing that I did it alone.

Her main interest in Alligator Alley is… big surprise… alligators. She had heard stories of reptiles lining the road. Well, I didn’t see any. In fact I didn’t see anything that even looked like The Everglades; it was a 25-mile stretch of interstate lined with scrub trees, like about a million other miles of interstate in this country. I didn’t even see any burnt trees, which was a surprise as I-75 had been closed for 2 days just a week before due to a major forest/grass fire.

When I turned south on FL 29 I did see a deer and, later, driving west on US 41, I saw some burnt trees and some swampland that surely had alligators galore. But there was no place to stop, so no photos.

The highlight of the trip was the Collier-Seminole State Park. We have been to several Florida state parks and they have all been very nice. This one featured the “walking dredge” that was used to build the first road across the Everglades – US 41 – back in the ’20s. It is large and spider-like. A very interesting machine, at least for an engineering nerd like me.

The park also has a memorial to Barron Collier, an advertising magnate and a man who at one time owned more than a million acres of Florida land, and a small replica of a Seminole Indian village. Jett would have liked that.