Big Cypress Road Trip

Ochopee, Florida: A while back, we took a trip down Tamiami Trail through South Florida on our way to Homestead Air Reserve Base on the way to an air show. During this trip, we marveled at the beauty of the Florida wilderness along the way and made it a point to come back and spend a little more time exploring these areas.

This resulted in a weekend camping trip and exploration of Collier-Seminole State Park, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Fakahatchee Strand Preserve last year. Today we decided to take a journey back down to South Florida to explore the Big Cypress National Preserve.

My uncle is currently in town visiting from Pennsylvania and after the amount of wildlife we saw on our previous trips, I suggested we give it a try. We headed out early and embarked on the 2 hour journey into the wilderness.

When we arrived at Big Cypress, we stopped off at the Big Cypress Swamp Welcome Center. The welcome center is located just inside the western boundary of the park. Here they have a few exhibits about the park and a small boardwalk. It is here where we picked up a map for today’s adventure.

We decided to take a trip down Loop Road. The road traverses 24 miles of backcountry on a two lane dirt road. Along the way there are several bridges that allow a look into the swamp.

Being in the heart of alligator country, we were expecting to see a bunch of gators. But for much of the trip along the loop road, the only wildlife we saw were the mosquitoes and the horseflies. This had a lot to do with the Florida heat. It was a balmy 96 degrees with a feels like temp in the triple digits on this late August afternoon. But it wasn’t a complete bust, we did manage to catch two gator during the trip on the loop road. 

The loop road seemed to go on forever. But we eventually made it back onto Tamiami Trail at the eastern perimeter of the park. From here we headed to the Oasis Visitor’s Center. Like the Welcome Center where we started, the Oasis Center has exhibits about the park and a boardwalk that overlooks the Tamiami Canal. Here in the canal, we saw three very large gators including one that was under a shade tree right against the boardwalk.

Our next stop on the trip was the Kirby Storter Roadside Park. The park features a half-mile elevated boardwalk into the swamp. But like the Loop Road, there was no wildlife to be found. Unlike us crazy humans parading around in the heat, the wildlife was in thicker cover where they could remain cool. But the walk was amazing. Nothing but tall cypress trees as far as you can see. There were three vultures circling around by the time we made it back to the truck, I figured they were there just in case one of these crazy tourists dropped dead from hiking in the heat.

By the time we completed the hike, we were seven hours into our excursion to Big Cypress. Our entire group was heat exhausted and starving so we decided to cancel our last two stops and head for dinner and home. We had also planned on taking the Turner Road scenic drive and walking the boardwalk at the HP Williams Roadside Park. But we had enough of the heat and our stomachs were getting the best of us.

Like our other trips to the wilds of South Florida, I really enjoyed the experience. I look forward to exploring this region again in the future. I would like to experience Big Cypress again in the cooler months to see if that has an effect on the wildlife. I would also like to continue the journey along Tamiami Trail and visit the Everglades National Park.

Be sure to check back later for more on our trip to Big Cypress as well as the complete photo gallery from the trip.