Everglades, Danger or Beauty?
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
Corkscrew Sanctuary’s mission is to save the largest remaining stand of ancient bald cypress. Cypress was being cut rapidly during the 40’s & 50’s while disrupting birds along with the wildlife and their habitats. The curiosity associated with this Sanctuary was the idea of a natural biological system which expands over 13,000 acres. The 2.25 mile boardwalk winds through pine flat wood, wet prairie, around marsh and through the bald cypress.
Deep in the swamp
During the early morning, before sunset, my friend Karin and I began our journey to the Corkscrew Sanctuary located near the Big Cypress Natural Preserve close to Naples Florida. This journey takes 3 hours from the Florida Keys.
Within all of this natural beauty I was looking to find the one image not only in my mind but also with a photograph that I could take back to the studio and paint.
The trip unveiled more than could be imagined. The trees were the host for mosses, lichens, bromeliads and ferns. Most famous of all is the “Ghost Orchid” which we searched for and found no signs of any blooming. The other surprise is to find that the sanctuary is home to hundreds of alligators, otters, white-tailed deer and red bellied turtles. Not to exclude the enormous amounts of birds native and migratory. During the walk on the boardwalk many of the items could be spotted.
“There are no other Everglades in the World. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote never wholly known.” Marjory Stoneman Douglas
In the end…..
After a few hours in exploration the clouds moved in with rain. We found ourselves lucky to have had the best part of the day surrounded by such magnificence.
Now that the journey was over we returned back to the Florida Keys tired and wet. I was still on a mission to find a photo that would capture this day to transform into the memory of a painting. I couldn’t find this until reviewing all the images captured during this trip.
Yes, this is the photo that was selected.
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