Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park covers roughly 1.5 million acres of subtropical wetland southwest of Miami, and it holds a distinction most national parks don't: it was established in 1947 specifically to protect a fragile ecosystem, rather than for dramatic scenery or geology, the first US national park created on those terms. That same year, Marjory Stoneman Douglas published "The Everglades: River of Grass," the book that gave the wetland its enduring nickname, describing the slow, near-invisible sheet of water that moves south through the sawgrass rather than sitting still like a typical swamp.

The park's ecological importance runs deep enough that it holds three major international designations at once, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, and International Biosphere Reserve, one of only three places on Earth to carry all three. It's also the only place in the world where American alligators and American crocodiles share the same habitat, alongside the endangered Florida panther, West Indian manatees, and hundreds of bird and fish species.