Everglades kayak trail: Exploring Nine Mile Pond

Kayak through Everglades for quiet beauty and wildlife

An Everglades kayak trail is a perfect way to surround yourself with the sights, sounds and creatures of Everglades National Park. Even on a busy, sunny Sunday afternoon in January, you can be alone in the wild on these trails and hear nothing but the swish of the reeds against your boat.

Nine Mile Pond canoe trail is one of a half-dozen Everglades kayak trails in the national park. It’s about eight miles short of Flamingo, the end of the main road in the park. It’s a 5-mile loop that will take four or five hours to paddle.

The scenery is serene and lovely — a vast shallow marsh spiked with mangrove islands, sawgrass and the occasional tree island. Some tight mangrove tunnels provide a fun challenge — long kayak paddles will barely fit.

Thank goodness the trail is well-marked with white PVC-pipe markers. One mangrove island looks a lot like the next and the scenery goes on as far as you can see. I don’t believe you’d find your way back without those markers.

Seeing wildlife at Nine Mile Pond trail

On our paddle, we spotted a few wading birds, but, actually, we saw more birds up close in 15 minutes on the Anhinga Trail.

The truly exceptional sighting was a huge crocodile lounging on the shoreline five minutes from the end of the trail. Crocodiles, whose range and numbers have been expanding, are still rare in Everglades National Park. We gave the croc a wide berth, but were thrilled to observe him. (We’ve heard guides call this guy Croczilla.)

If you go on the Nine Mile Pond trail, keep a few things in mind:

• It’s very shallow and impassable during the driest part of the year, late February and March in many years. Check at the visitor’s center if in doubt. It’s likely to be very buggy in summer.
• There is absolutely no dry land on the trail, so you’ll be picnicking in your boat if you bring food. (We did and loved drifting in the sawgrass, absorbing the stillness.)
• Use a restroom in the park before going to the trail. While there are picnic tables at the Nine Mile Pond trailhead, there are no other facilities and, obviously, none along the trail itself.
• Print out a copy of the trail brochure; it offers some interesting observations that will enhance your paddle.

Paddling Nine Mile Pond if you don’t have a kayak or canoe 

• If you don’t bring your own, you can rent canoes and kayaks from the Flamingo marina .
• You can arrange a naturalist-guided tour through the Everglades National Park Institute for a $79 fee.

Other canoe and kayak trails in Everglades National Park include:

• Mud Lake/Coot Bay Trail: an out-and-back paddle  through thick mangroves and through wide Coot Bay.
• Hell’s Bay Canoe Trail: Famously: “Hell to get into and Hell to get out of.” Through mangrove creeks and ponds.
• Noble Hammock: a 1.9 mile loop through a maze of mangrove tunnels and small ponds.
• West Lake Kayak Trail: 7.7 miles one way to Alligator Creek through a series of large open lakes connected by narrow creeks lined with mangroves. West Lake is one of the largest lakes in the area and it can be windy and choppy.
• Park brochure covers trails listed above.
• Flamingo Marina does not rent kayaks at these trails, so they are best for people who bring their own kayak. (There are additional outfitters who serve Everglades National Park but their services tend to be be guided all-day tours.

Planning your visit to the Everglades:

• An 11-minute YouTube video capturing a visit to Nine Mile Pond
• FloridaRambler.com’s Everglades National Park visitor guide
• Canoe rentals from the Flamingo marina
• The Everglades National Park website
• Everglades National Park map
• Camping in the Everglades
• The Anhinga Trail: the best place to spot wildlife in Everglades National Park.
• Shark Valley entrance, with its excellent 15 mile hiking/biking trail  and tram tours.
• Robert is Here, the funky fruit stand near the Homestead entrance.