1770. Go to Big Cypress National Preserve

 When we first were planning on going to Florida, I looked at an option that would take us from the East Coast to the West Coast passing through the northern edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Then we changed our itinerary based on who was playing when and how long we were going to be gone. We ended up having a potential free day to do some exploring and I mentioned we could headed down to check out the Everglades since we still had the National Park pass. The hubby agreed.

Big Cypress National Preserve is on the northwest edge of the Everglades. It really could be considered part of the Everglades because when the Everglades was founded in the 1930s, the government didn't have enough funds to maintain the whole area so later the Big Cypress National Preserve was created in what remained of the unprotected land in the area.

Big Cypress Preserve is open year round and has two visitor centers. Since we were going to the Everglades, we visited Nathaniel P. Reed Visitor Center in Ochopee. Due to some unforeseen issues, we didn't spend much time at the visitor center but instead decided to drive through the preserve on our to the Everglades. I had several stops I wanted to do.

There are two boardwalks and a scenic drive along US 41 that you can explore Big Cypress. Knowing the scenic drive is a dirt road, we skipped. We didn't want to deal with all that dust. 

We stopped at H.P. Williams Wayside park which has a short boardwalk. The boardwalk was the perfect length for the hubby who is not all about hiking or walking much. We saw several alligators, a really large bug, and some birds. It was actually a very nice boardwalk to check out.

The other boardwalk we did not check out due to time was Kirby Storter Roadside Park. This one has a longer boardwalk (about 1 mile round trip). If we ever get back down here, I would check it out. 

I would have loved to spend more time in Big Cypress but we had to get to the Everglades National Park. You could spend the whole day explore the scenic trail, boardwalks, and check out the visitor center. It was definitely worth the detour on our way to Port St. Lucie.