Tamiami Trail

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Miami

   The Tamiami Trail was named for what it joined, Tampa and Miami, and it took thirteen years and an astonishing amount of dynamite to build. Begun in 1915 and opened in 1928, US 41 cuts straight west across the Everglades, one of the largest wetlands in North America, and it changed Florida by linking the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, though it also interrupted the flow of water across the Everglades in a way that scientists are still trying to repair. The road starts in downtown Miami as Southwest 8th Street, known to locals as Calle Ocho, the heart of Little Havana.

   Read the complete Miami write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Miami is where the day begins. Next is Shark Valley.

2. 2. Shark Valley

   Shark Valley is not a valley and, as far as anyone knows, has no sharks to speak of. The name belongs to the Shark River Slough, a shallow, slow-moving sheet of water that flows imperceptibly south-west across the Everglades toward the Gulf, and at this point on the Tamiami Trail you can walk, cycle or ride a tram into the middle of it. It is part of what Marjory Stoneman Douglas famously called the river of grass, a river fifty miles wide and an inch or two deep that moves only a few hundred feet a day.

   Read the complete Shark Valley write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Shark Valley comes up about 131 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ochopee.

3. 3. Ochopee

   Ochopee barely qualifies as a place. It is a gap in the swamp on the Tamiami Trail, with a few buildings, a produce stand and a very small post office that has a claim to be the smallest in the United States. The building was originally a tool shed for a tomato farm's irrigation pipes, and after a fire destroyed the earlier store and post office in the 1950s it was pressed into service as a replacement, and it has been delivering letters from the same tiny room ever since. People stop to photograph it, buy a postcard and stamp it on the spot, and that is more or less the point of the visit.

   Read the complete Ochopee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 258 km into the recorded legs you reach Ochopee. Next is Naples.

4. 4. Naples

   Naples is the end of the Tamiami Trail on the Gulf of Mexico, and after a long ride across the wet flat heart of southern Florida, it can feel almost unreal. The town is a polished, prosperous resort of about twenty-one thousand people with white sand beaches, a long wooden pier, palm-lined avenues, golf courses and some of the most expensive real estate in the state. Retirees, snowbirds and yachts are everywhere, and the air smells of salt and suntan lotion.

   Read the complete Naples write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Naples closes the day.