Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center

Nice visitor center and great display. Restrooms are outside the visitor center. There are stamps inside that yiu do on your passport. Small gift shop where you can buy souvenirs. There is plenty of parking available.

Had a great visit to the Ernest Coe Visitors Center of the Everglades National Park. Got some stickers and had opportunity to walk around the exhibits and watch the movie.

Great place to stop when visiting the Everglades educational exhibits and friendly staff and nice little observation places to check out nature

When you visit Everglades don't miss this Visitor Center. Very nice, well organized place, very informative, and still not too much info .... meaning: interesting, takes not too long to go through, and makes your trip more enjoyable. (It's always good to know what we see.) The entire area is great.

Loved this visitor center! Wanted to to check out this national park and this center was friendly and easy to explore

We got there shortly before closing but the employees in the visitors center were super friendly and more than willing to tell us the best places to take pictures and see the most wildlife. It was beautiful even at dusk but obviously not a lot of critters out and about. That's our fault for going on a whim late in the day.

The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center is a must-stop if you're heading into the Everglades. They offer helpful tours and exhibits that give great insight into the unique flora and fauna of the region. The staff is knowledgeable, and the displays make it easy to appreciate the ecosystem before you even hit the trails. A perfect place to start your Everglades adventure!

We visited the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center around 10 AM on a Sunday morning and it was uncrowded and easily accessible. We did not purchase National Park passes before arrival because it requires a 2-4 week time lapse for processing and delivery, and we hadn't planned ahead. It was good that we waited; the park ranger at the entrance gave us helpful information and saved us money with our on-site purchase. It helped that we knew basically which pass we wanted, so we didn't hold up any cars in the entrance line. The Visitor Center is a great starting point for your visit to the Everglades. We used the restrooms, that are in a separate building. We purchased our stickers and stamped them for our National Parks Passport collection. We watched the very informative movie in their comfortable mini theater. My husband visited the rangers at the information desk to ask about specific things we wanted to see and to get their suggestions on what we shouldn't miss. We did some shopping at their gift shop. We strolled through the many educational displays throughout the building. It is wide open and easily accommodates large crowds of people. On the day we visited, it was NOT crowded and we didn't have to wait to view any of the displays or read any of the accompanying signs. Outside the building is a "back deck" that allows you to look out over the crystal clear water into the grasses. Wildlife is visible from this location but the Anhinga Trail is what you want to do to experience local wildlife "up close and personal". The Anhinga Trail is handicap accessible (paved walkways and boardwalk). We happened upon a free park ranger guided tour shortly after starting our walk. We stayed with that group around the less than 1 mile trail and learned some things about the area that we would not have known otherwise. I suggest checking out the times of guided tours at the Visitor Center upon your arrival and time your trail hike accordingly. (see photos with that review) A second trail is quite different from the boardwalk trail. It's a paved trail through "woods", and named after the trees found there: Gumbo Limbo. It is shorter than the Anhinga Trail but seemed longer, possibly because there were no birds or alligators to be seen here. It's a loop trail ending a little distance from the entrance. (see photos with that review) All-in-all the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center was a great addition to our visit to The Everglades.

Great start for our Everglades vacation. This is the end of June and beginning of wet season with end of dry season, so lots of mosquitos, especially on trails with brush on both sides and tops. This station was very helpful, and was well laid out to give a basic introduction to what you will see in the Everglades National Park. Displays on history and ecology. Ranger and Volunteer staff were helpful, you come hear before you hit the pay station, so if you don't have time to enter the park this is still a great stop to look around at no cost before entering the park. Wildlife beginning to arear outside. Small compared to other visitor stations but covered the basic information and FREE.

Located just outside the official entrance to the park so you can stop here for free. Compared to other National park visitors centers this one was smaller but still informational. Upon entering there is a large picture of a park map. There is an auditorium that plays videos but didn't get to watch while I was there. There are a few displays including an Everglades eco system display and a python skeleton. Also a nice patio out back overlooking a pond but a big part was under construction and maybe looked damaged. No maps available inside but a sign saying go download the NPS app. Includes a small gift shop and bathrooms in a different way building out front. Overall nice, free spot to get some basic knowledge before you venture into the park.

As far as visitor centers go, this one is has it all - super large with lots of information about Everglades NP, a nice bookstore, lots of friendly rangers, and clean bathrooms. We booked a Water Walk with the Everglades Institute, and this was our meeting point. Great start - we were able to fill up our water bottles and apply sunscreen while we waited. Definitely a must stop before starting on your adventure through the park!

The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center is one of four visitor centers at Everglades National Park. This is the second nicest out of the three we visited. They have exhibits, restrooms, water refilling stations, and a gift shop. Definitely stop by here if you're in the area and learn about this amazing National Park!

It's a really nice visitor's center and a great place to get a map and take pictures. This center is the first stop before entering the park and paying. The park has plenty of things to do. You can rent a canoe, go on a guided tour or go on trails. I recommend the trails. This center is beautiful and large. As I first walked in, the nice display wall in front caught my attention. It was local birds and trees arranged nicely. The center had a lot of educational literature around. It was entertaining. It had an aligator skeleton head. To the back of the center, outside. You will see a nice cover canopy with a sitting area. It is the perfect area to enjoy this beautiful place. It overlooks water and nature.

I'll have to return- the visitor center was only partially open, thanks to covid-19. I was able to get a map and overhear information from the help desk. I also popped into the store for keepsakes. There is a gorgeous floor mosaic of Southern Florida and beyond- outside, a lovely little overlook. The name sake for the visitor center was one of those who worked to establish the Everglades as a National Park. Ernest Coe worked diligently for 20 years on this project and is considered an immortal in the National Park movement.

This visitor center was closed on our way into the park since we got there early. We stopped on our way out instead since it's right by the entrance/exit. We really didn't want to spend much time here since it was the middle of the pandemic when we were there. We just stopped inside for a quick peek at the gift shop. It was really crowded when we were there. I'd try getting there early to avoid crowds. It's a really large visitor center, so it would be a good spot to stop if you want more information about the park.

The visitors center at Everglades National Park is named in honor of Earnest "Tom" F. Coe (1866-1951). He is known as the "father of the Everglades". After a long profession as a landscaper and gardener in Connecticut he moved to Miami at the age of 60. He worked for 20 years with other environmentalists like Marjory Stoneman Douglas to elevate the Everglades to a National Park status. At the time that Coe became interested in the Everglades, Florida was experiencing a population explosion and parts of the Everglades were being drained for development. Birds were also being killed for their feathers and rare orchids were being stolen from the area. Coe along with others formed the Everglades Tropical National Park Association to prevent the Everglades from being developed. It was an uphill battle because the prevailing belief at the time was that only magnificent land forms deserved federal protection while the flat Everglades was ugly swamp filled with fearsome reptiles. Coe gave speeches at civic, garden and rotary clubs, he wrote politicians running for office, and gave tours of the Everglades. Everglades National Park was finally dedicated in 1947 but Coe was bitterly disappointed because the park only encompassed a quarter of the land he proposed. In 1997 the 105th Congress declared that Coe was the primary person behind the creation of Everglades National Park and named the Homestead visitors center after him. He passed away in 1951 at the age of 84. Ernest F. Coe is the main visitors center in Everglades Park. It is located outside the Homestead gate so you don't have to pay the park fee to visit. On the walk up to the visitors center you will find the restrooms to the left. The inside of the visitors center has a gift shop selling shirts and books, educational displays about water conservation and the animals that live in the park, a 15 minute movie on the Everglades filmed by the Discovery Channel, and park rangers who are on hand to hand out maps, give pointers on where to visit, and sign you up for ranger led walks. My favorite part of the Ernest F. Coe Visitors Center is the large deck out back overlooking the wetlands. On my visit I saw fish swimming on the clear water and a juvenile alligators. Thanks to the efforts of Ernest F. Coe, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Big Cypress National Preserve were all protected. All of those parks were part of Coes plan to be part of Everglades National Park. So pay a visit to this World Heritage Site, rock on the chairs on the deck, and say a silent thank you to the father of the Everglades who worked tirelessly to save this beautiful and ecologically important land for all of us.

Nice nature area , bathrooms were clean and nice. Visitor was nice , cute history stations of the animals. Nice deck in the back to look over a lake with rocking chairs.

It needed a movie or something. the visitors center.maybe it's Covid. All was good, and staff helpful.

We signed up for a tour and they told us to meet "by the flagpole." When the time for the tour came we did just that. No one else was coming so we went in and asked about the tour. They looked at us like we were crazy and said "the tour is down the road. It started already. You missed it" Never did they once mention it was in another location and they weren't sympathetic at all about it. Pretty frustrating as we planned our entire day around the tour. We explored the park on our own after that and I reviewed the park separately but I wouldn't waste one more second dealing with the people at the visitors center.

It's not common that you leave a national park raving about the visitor center, but this visitor center is that good! Located in the Everglades National Park, the Earnest Coe Visitor Center should be the first stop before you head out deep into the woods. Firstly, you can get great tips from the rangers at the info desk about which trails are right for your group, what to expect, what surprises to be ready for, etc. They also have their own national park stamp for your national parks passport book or postcards, etc. My favorite exhibit in the visitor center was one that made you really think: the different sides of climate change. They had recorded conversations from the different sides of Florida's great water debate -- sport fishermen, farmers getting by, landowners, tourists, etc. -- that made it clear there is no one right way to do this. Give it a listen if you're in the center.

lions and tigers and... oh damn an alligator ate all of them!