On this day, we ventured to the Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida. Some of our most exciting stops along the Tamiami Trail were here. This post will focus on these stops in Big Cypress. If you want to follow our whole trip, check out our post: Tamiami Trail – A Scenic Drive into Real Florida.
Background
For Paul’s birthday this year, he wanted to spend time with as much family as possible on the beach. So, we booked a week stay at a timeshare in Pompano Beach right on the ocean. A week at the beach sounds nice, but Paul was looking for adventure. So, he planned 3 different days of adventures in South Florida with different members of our family. Unfortunately, Becky had to work some this vacation. So, Becky decided to stay back this day with our daughter and parents. But Becky’s brother Kelly was with us and ready to go. Paul and Kelly had the whole day to explore.
Big Cypress was established as the nation’s first national preserve. A national preserve is a protected area, but without the restrictions of a national park. What’s interesting is you can do more in the preserve like hunting and operating off-road vehicles. You can find our more information about this preserve as well as things to do at: Big Cypress National Preserve (nps.gov). When traveling to any park within the NPS, it’s best to hit a visitor center first for more information. Our first stop was the Oasis Visitor Center.
Oasis Visitor Center in Big Cypress National Preserve
It was about an hour to the Tamiami Trail and more than 30 more to the visitor center. We arrived at the Oasis Visitor Center by mid-morning. We turned right crossing over the canal to get into the parking lot. On the left is a boardwalk and on the right is the visitor center. We see tape in front of the boardwalk entrance so we head into the visitor center. We get a passport stamp for Becky. She has a passport book, and getting free stamps at NPS site helps to keep track of our visits. They also had some art from Clyde Butcher. a renowned photographer in the area. Then we asked the ranger about the boardwalk. He said it’s closed because an alligator is on it. He runs out and we rush out behind him, just in time to see them removing it!
The park ranger ran out to take pictures too. He had said this was the first time they had seen a gator on the boardwalk. Normally they are in the canal. Once the park ranger went back inside, we followed to buy some things. We got another fridge magnet and some passport stickers. We also watched most of the show they had about the park. It was very informative. But now that the gator had been removed, the boardwalk was back open.
The Boardwalk at the Oasis Visitor Center
We exited the visitor center and walked across to the boardwalk. The boardwalk is right in front of the canal. It is raised up and fenced so there’s plenty of protection from the gators as long as one is not on it! To our surprise, the canal in front of the boardwalk was full of alligators. You can easily walk from one end of the boardwalk to the other within 10 minutes, but we took our time. There were gators swimming in the water, and gators sunning on the shore just beneath the boardwalk. All of these gators were a good size and we had an up-close view of them.
Another park ranger stopped by and told us there were so many in the canal because it’s the dry season. It had been very dry in Florida at this time, and the gators would go to the nearest water source. Coming here during the wet season may have been a completely different experience. The Florida National Scenic Trail also starts here just past the boardwalk. It starts adjacent to a small runway. The visitor center used to be an airport before being purchased by the NPS. The park ranger said the runway is still used by them sometimes.
Visitor centers are great places to stop for various reasons. Not only did we get our passport stamp and shop there, but we always get good information. There are some scenic drives in the preserve and we were interested in some trails. We decided to check out the nearest scenic drive.
Loop Road Scenic Drive in Big Cypress National Preserve
Just a few minutes past the visitor center is the 24 mile long Loop Road Scenic Drive on the left. You can get more information here for the Loop Road Scenic Drive. We decided to check it out. There is supposed to be an old gas station at the beginning. But there is not much left, and we almost missed the turn. This road is gravel from the start. So, we decided to go a little ways rather than do the whole 24 mile loop back.
We passed a hunting lodge and some private residences, which are allowed in the preserve unlike in national parks. We also passed a sawgrass prairie, stopping at 2.2 miles at the Gator Hook Trailhead.
At the trailhead are restrooms with pit toilets, garbage bins and the trail signs with more information. The trail is a 5 mile walk into the swamp. The trail begins on a dry area that was once a tram road built by loggers in the early 20th century. However, the sign warns you will soon enter ankle to knee-deep water on this 3 hour round trip. We definitely had a lot of other stops we wanted to make. So we just wanted to check the trail out for a little bit and come back. We were not prepared to walk through water.
Gator Hook Trail
This Gator Hook Trail begins more wooded but dry. We put on some bug spray on our exposed areas and headed into the trail. However, only a few minutes into it, Kelly was complaining about mosquitos biting him. Paul was more prepared with a long sleeve shirt, hat and boots, but Kelly had regular clothes. Kelly looked at Paul and said there were at least a dozen mosquitos on his back. At this point, we both ran out of there!
We got back to the car, but Kelly didn’t want to go back. But he sprayed Paul down with more bug spray and Paul decided to head back for just a bit. Paul ran through the wooded area at the start until it opened up. That seemed to help with the mosquitos. Once out of the wooded area, it was beautiful.
You can see limestone remnants from the old tram road. On either side was sawgrass with trees in the distance on either side. It was really a neat spot just to be there in the middle of it. There was some water on the trail even though it was still the tail end of the dry season. Paul walked to the end of the open area back into a wooded area, but soon hit water. The trail was flooded. And even though he had boots, decided it was time to return back.
Paul returned back down the trail, running through the mosquitos back to Kelly and the car. Once we were reunited, we turned around on this gravel road back to Tamiami Trail. We did a few more stops on the Tamiami Trail not part of the preserve. But our last stop was their other visitor center.
Swamp Visitor Center in Big Cypress National Preserve
Big Cypress National Preserve has 2 visitor centers. The Nathaniel P. Reed or Big Cypress Swamp Visitor Center is on the Western side. Their park headquarters is also here. We turned left into the parking lot. This visitor center is larger than Oasis. We headed inside and got more stamps for Becky’s passport book. They also have park rangers there to answer questions, more exhibits, as well as another store. We didn’t stay too long. However, we went out back, where they also have a boardwalk.
Their boardwalk, however, is not on a canal. You can tell you are closer to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Mangrove trees are all along this boardwalk, and on this waterway which heads out to the Gulf. We didn’t see much wildlife, but it was a nice view different than the others we’d seen today.
Summary
Big Cypress National Preserve is a vast area and we only hit the stops along the Tamiami Trail. However, we saw lots of wildlife and loved our time here. We would love to come back and do a guided hike or a swamp buggy tour into the swamp. Next time hopefully Becky can make it. Big Cypress is also free to access unlike normal national parks. In addition there are family friendly boardwalk trails near the preserve. To see all of our stops along the Tamiami Trail, check out our post: Tamiami Trail – A Scenic Drive into Real Florida.