Chapel Trail Park Nature Preserve

It’s the Everglades, but closer. A healthy urban remnant of the great swamp is surrounded by Pembroke Pines, but is large enough that it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is access. This is a wonderfully accessible park for viewing the same birds and wildlife you would see in the wild spaces of the greater Everglades ecosystem to the west.

Interpretive signs are found all along the trail, making this a pleasant place to explore for families and newbies to the Everglades.

Resources

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Overview

Directions

Hike

Facing the open marsh, the entrance to the trail also serves as access to the rental canoes, providing an panorama before you even start your hike.

Look for pond apples growing near the canoe launch. Pond apple swamps once blanketed this coast, but are now only tiny remnants on natural lands.

Boardwalk through the tropical hammock

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The boardwalk starts to the right, tunneling through tropical vegetation. Expect to see red maples sporting fall colors during the winter months.

Making a sharp left, the boardwalk is a long straightaway crowded by tropical hammock. Wild coffee and native lantana grow in the understory.

Views open up of the boardwalks up ahead

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When the views open up, the boardwalk serves as a bridge over the waterway that paddlers follow.

Periphyton, the goopy biomass of the Everglades, floats on the water below.

Periphyton is a complex web of bacteria, algae, and plant matter that forms more than half the biomass of the Everglades ecosystem

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Making a bend, the boardwalk offers extensive viewing across the marshes in all directions.

It’s here we saw what we thought were purple gallinules but were later informed were Asian marsh hens – four pairs of them rooting through the reeds – as well as a pair of coots.

Non-native Asian marsh hens were introduced to Florida in Pembroke Pines. Their coloration is similar to a purple gallinule

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The next straightaway leads to a covered shelter overlooking a small pocket of swamp.

Before you reach the shelter, one more boardwalk reaches out to the south, spanning the heart of the marsh.

Shelter along the side trail

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Follow it to the end to the floating dock for the long views across the preserve.

View from the end of the floating dock

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Tricolor heron and great egret are common residents of this marsh, but you’ll see many more birds, too.

Scan the shallows for turtles, especially large softshell turtles.

The end of the boardwalk is at 0.4 mile. On the return trip take the side trail to the shelter to look over the swamp on its over side.

Linger long as you walk back along the boardwalk. This is an excellent destination for both birding and wildlife watching.

Explore More!

Slideshow

See our photos of Chapel Trail Park Nature Preserve

Nearby Adventures

More worth exploring while you’re in this area.

Tree Tops Park

Climb into the forest canopy to browse among the bromeliads amid the ancient live oaks at Tree Tops Park

Pine Island Ridge Natural Area

At the highest natural elevation in Broward County, this pine-topped ridge speaks to the history of those who lived here in the past, in a village that Mikasuki medicine chief Abiaka called home

Snake Warriors Island Natural Area

Walk a gentle accessible half-mile loop while learning about the oldest documented settlement in the eastern Everglades at Snake Warrior’s Island in Miramar

Arch Creek Park

The tropical hammock at Arch Creek Park was the site of a Tequesta Indian village between 500 B.C. and 1300 A.D. Gentle natural footpaths wind through the dark forest