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Summer in Big Cypress

Big Cypress Swamp

A massive ecosystem spanning more than a million acres, Big Cypress is a mosaic of sensitive tropical landscapes seen nowhere else in the United States.


Contents

  • 1 Resources
  • 2 Exploring Big Cypress
  • 3 Public Lands in the Big Cypress Swamp
    • 3.1 Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
    • 3.2 Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge
    • 3.3 Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
    • 3.4 CREW Marsh Trails
    • 3.5 Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
    • 3.6 Big Cypress National Preserve
  • 4 Where to stay in the Big Cypress Swamp
    • 4.1 Estero
    • 4.2 Everglades City
    • 4.3 Fort Myers
    • 4.4 Naples
    • 4.5 Billie Swamp Safari
    • 4.6 Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki
  • 5 Swamp Walks in Big Cypress Swamp
    • 5.1 Tamiami Trail Triathlon
    • 5.2 Sabal Palm Trail
    • 5.3 Florida Trail, Big Cypress South
    • 5.4 Collier-Seminole Hiking Trail
  • 6 Boardwalks in the Big Cypress Swamp
    • 6.1 Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
    • 6.2 Kirby Storter Boardwalk
    • 6.3 Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
    • 6.4 Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk
    • 6.5 Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki
  • 7 Articles on the Big Cypress Swamp
    • 7.1 Big Cypress Backcountry Access
    • 7.2 Crossing Big Cypress
    • 7.3 The Ghost Orchid
    • 7.4 Summer at Corkscrew

Resources

As Florida authors, we’ve spent a great deal of time in the Big Cypress Swamp. Because of its unusual beauty and botanical wonders, many aspects of it are featured heavily in our books on the region.

Florida Trail Hikes book cover The Florida Trail Guide book cover South Florida Explorers Guide book cover 50 Hikes in South Florida book cover

Disclosure: As authors and affiliates, we receive earnings when you buy these through our links. This helps us continue to provide public information on this website.


Exploring Big Cypress

A massive ecosystem spanning more than a million acres, the Big Cypress Swamp is unlike anywhere else on Earth. Rainfall seeps across this landscape in a shallow southeast sheetflow.

Along its path, it nourishes both lush cypress strands with deeper waters and open prairies with wizened diminutive cypress atop a rocky puzzle of karst. Islands topped with tropical trees and pines poke out of this sea of swamp.

Picking up nutrients during this slow process, the waters of Big Cypress feed the mangrove marshes of the Ten Thousand Islands as they mingle with the Gulf of Mexico.


Public Lands in the Big Cypress Swamp

Many public and some private conservation lands protect this sensitive resource known as the Western Everglades. Hydrologically, the Big Cypress Swamp stretches from Fort Myers to the northwest down to Naples.

It extends east towards Okaloacoochee Slough on its northern end, and once reached Lake Okeechobee. On its southern section, it meets the Everglades “River of Grass” along the edge of the Miccosukee Reservation along the Tamiami Trail west of Miami.

Cross Trail junction in Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Winding 1.4 miles through the slough, the broad wheelchair-accessible boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers leads you into a dark cypress strand

Florida Panther NWR

Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge

The longer of two loops at Florida Panther NWR guarantees a wet walk through panther habitat of wet pine flatwoods and cypress domes

Fakahatchee Strand State Park

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park

It’s the Amazon of North America, home of the ghost orchid. Protecting more than 85,000 acres, Fakahatchee Strand is Florida’s largest state preserve and most certainly our wildest.

Blaze post on prairie trail

CREW Marsh Trails

At CREW Marsh, a network of well-marked paths crisscrosses the northwestern tip of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, providing loops of up to 3.1 miles along a vast marsh.

boardwalk to big cypresses in Corkscrew

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Weaving beneath a canopy knit by old-growth cypress trees in a majestic swamp forest, the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is one of Florida’s best hikes

Big Cypress orchid

Big Cypress National Preserve

Protecting nearly three quarters of the million-acre Big Cypress Swamp, Big Cypress National Preserve is Florida’s largest and most remote wilderness.


Where to stay in the Big Cypress Swamp

These communities provide places to stay within and along the edges of the Big Cypress Swamp, as well as access to restaurants, ecotours, and museums.

Koreshan State Park

Estero

Estero
Everglades City airboat

Everglades City

Everglades City
Edison Home Fort Myers

Fort Myers

Fort Myers
Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

Naples

Naples

Discover the cultural heritage and natural attractions of the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, too.

Billie Swamp Safari

Billie Swamp Safari

With airboat and swamp buggy rides as well as interpretation of native species, Billie Swamp Safari is an attraction providing immersion into the Big Cypress Swamp, ancestral home of the Seminole Tribe since the 1800s..

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki

Set in a 60-acre cypress dome on the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki museum of Seminole culture provides an introduction to the tropical outdoors of natural South Florida’s swamps in which the Seminole Tribe has lived for more than a century.


Swamp Walks in Big Cypress Swamp

A guided swamp walk such as the ones offered at the Clyde Butcher Big Cypress Gallery are the best way to get your feet wet for the first time.

But this immense swamp also has many trails where you can wade right in, including Florida’s toughest backpacking trip along a 30-mile segment of the Florida National Scenic Trail. Here are a few suggestions.

Walking through wet areas helps cool you down

Tamiami Trail Triathlon

Tamiami Trail Triathlon
Sabal Palm Trail

Sabal Palm Trail

Sabal Palm Trail
Big Cypress Swamp

Florida Trail, Big Cypress South

Florida Trail, Big Cypress South
Collier Seminole Hiking Trail

Collier-Seminole Hiking Trail

Collier-Seminole Hiking Trail

Boardwalks in the Big Cypress Swamp

These accessible boardwalk trails provide an easy way to see the beauty of the Big Cypress Swamp without getting your feet wet. They are ideal for walking along slowly for birding.

Cross Trail junction in Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Kirby Storter Boardwalk

Kirby Storter Boardwalk

boardwalk to big cypresses in Corkscrew

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Flag pond surrounded by alligator flag

Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki


Articles on the Big Cypress Swamp

Our narrative features on our adventures in the Big Cypress Swamp.

An obvious watery path through wetlands

Big Cypress Backcountry Access

By December 15, all public comments are due on the new Big Cypress Backcountry Access Plan. Here’s our analysis of it and our opinions, along with a discussion of backcountry and wilderness in Florida.

Florida Trail, Big Cypress

Crossing Big Cypress

It’s Florida’s roughest, wettest, weirdest backpacking trip, best tackled with friends. Along this 30 mile stretch of the Florida Trail in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve, immersing in the swamp is the point of the hike. Sandra tackled it as the final stretch of her multi-year 1,110-mile section hike of the Florida Trail, end-to-end.

ghost orchid

The Ghost Orchid

On a guided swamp walk into the Fakahatchee Strand, I discover how difficult it is to spot a ghost orchid on your own, let alone keep your bearings in this tangled tropical wilderness

Entering Corkscrew Strand on the boardwalk

Summer at Corkscrew

There is a special magic surrounding a summer hike through Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, where ghost orchids dance high above in the soft green canopy created by the ancient cypress protected here



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Well worn path through a wet pine flatwoods landscape

DuPuis Loop Trail

DuPuis Loop Trail
Bridge edged by alligator flag

Okaloacoochee Slough Tram Loop

Okaloacoochee Slough Tram Loop
Cypress dome in fog

Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest

Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest
Collier Seminole Hiking Trail

Collier-Seminole Hiking Trail

Collier-Seminole Hiking Trail

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