Agile Trekker: Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/17/2025	4.7 miles	3 hours 6 minutes	0'	1.6 mph	17.5 miles

Parking:

Gator Hook Trailhead, Loop Road

Map:

Gaia GPS app

Directions:

Take Gator Hook Trail to the end. Turn around and return.

National Parks:

Big Cypress National Preserve
Everglades National Park

First day of our Florida vacation. We drove from our hotel in Miami to Big Cypress National Preserve. We stopped by the visitor center to get a hike recommendation. We ended up at the Gator Hook Trail. The rangers at the visitor center loaned us poles (i.e. broom handles). Being a swamp, you hike through the swamp, so poles are really, really helpful. We didn't realize how deep it would get, so at first, we tried to walk around the water. Within the first 5 minutes of the hike, I fell and got caked in mud. The water on the trail was calf to knee deep. Once you abandon all hope of staying dry and embrace walking through the water, it was fun. Dian was wearing jeans, and ended up taking them off and hiking in her underwear :) No gators or pythons on the trail :)

We ate lunch at the trailhead and saw some very clean looking people heading out. We went back to the Oasis visitor center to return our poles & watched a movie about alligator wrestling (poor alligators). We found the sign for the southern terminus of the Florida Trail. It would be too wet and swampy for me.

We had a little time, so we drove to the Everglades and walked a tiny bit along the East Tram Trail and Bobcat Boardwalk Trail, hoping to see some gators. It was a cool, overcast drizzly day, so the must all have been hiding in the water. We did return to bike this trail later, and it was the place we saw the most gators! We stayed in a motel in Homestead for the night. Popping pain pills for hip pain.