The Everglades Wilderness Waterway winds an enthralling path through rivers, bays, and streams on the southwestern edge of Everglades National Park. Rich with wildlife and scenic beauty, it also poses many challenges for paddlers. Canoeists and kayakers must deal with wind, waves, limited campsites (in the form of “chickee” platforms over the water and historic groundsites), and no fresh water. As veterans of this complex passage, authors Holly Genzen and Anne Sullivan turn those limitations into glorious, safe adventure. Some out-and-back paddles lead to the rivers and bays of the Everglades National Park’s interior; others wind to Gulf Coast sites; still others loop around islands, mangrove forests, or other natural phenomena. The authors provide marker-by-marker route descriptions (both north to south and south to north), and comprehensive information on safety, supplies, campsites, and navigation. They also chronicle the waterway’s wildlife, social history, and origin of place names encountered along the way.



Authors Holly Genzen and Anne Sullivan began frequent paddling trips on the Everglades Wilderness Waterway six years ago. Both are Florida Master Naturalists certified by the University of Florida.

A longtime outdoor adventurer, Holly Genzen has a Masters degree in Outdoor Education and a PhD in Educational Administration. She is a former associate professor at Chicago-based National-Louis University. In recent years, she has focused her canoeing and kayaking activities on Florida’s many springs, streams, and rivers. She is also an avid hiker, and has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail alone. She has been a volunteer resident at Hoover’s Camp Rapidan in Shenandoah National Park, and she is a volunteer environmental educator at Trout Lake Nature Center in Eustis, Florida.

In a small wooden boat, with her marine biologist mother, Anne McCrary Sullivan began adventuring on the water before she could walk. Now she is a volunteer naturalist at Everglades National Park and a professor at the Florida Regional Campus of National-Louis University. With an MFA in poetry and a PhD in English education, she has been poet-in-residence at Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and at locations beyond Florida. Her book of poems, Ecology II: Throat Song from The Everglades. (Word Tech Editions in Cincinnati), explores Everglades flora, fauna, and ecology through a poetic lens.