Big Cypress: The Wild Swamp Next Door to the Everglades

Drive the Tamiami Trail west from Miami and the city falls away into something vast and green: Big Cypress, a swampy wilderness so big and so dark at night that you can see the Milky Way reflected in the water.

America’s First Preserve

Big Cypress National Preserve was established in 1974, one of the first two national preserves in the country, signed into being the same day as Big Thicket in Texas, created to protect the watershed that feeds the neighboring Everglades. It covers about 729,000 acres of cypress strands, wet prairie, pinelands, and hardwood hammocks. Unlike a national park, a preserve allows traditional uses like hunting and lets the Miccosukee and Seminole way of life continue, a recognition that people have always been part of this landscape.

Panthers and Dark Skies

Big Cypress is prime habitat for the endangered Florida panther, along with alligators, black bears, wading birds, and orchids found almost nowhere else. Because it is so remote and undeveloped, it was named an International Dark Sky Park, one of the best places east of the Mississippi to see the stars. The scenic Loop Road and boardwalks like the one at the Oasis Visitor Center let you take it in without getting your feet wet, though wading into a cypress dome is its own quiet thrill.

Plan Your Visit

Big Cypress runs along U.S. 41 and Interstate 75 between Naples and Miami and is open year round. Stop at a visitor center for maps and to watch alligators from the boardwalk, drive the gravel Loop Road for wildlife, and stay after dark if the sky is clear. Winter and spring are most comfortable; summer brings heat, rain, and mosquitoes. Bring water, bug spray, and a full tank of gas.

Official page: Big Cypress National Preserve