Let me give you a small glimpse of how my mind works, especially when it comes to travel. The first thing you should know about me is that I want to do everything, I want to see everything, I want to go to all of the places, and I surely want to do all of the things. That is kinda how I ended up seeing Big Cypress Preserve in South Florida. Quin & I were on our way to the Everglades National Park & decided it would just be better for our lives if we bought a National Park pass. Why we make these decisions is beyond me. I know we will not be able to go to most of the places we have annual memberships for & yet I still think it’s a great idea when we come up with it. 

In our spur of the moment research on how to get a National Park pass the same day, we discovered we could get one at a nearby park that was on the way to the Everglades, Big Cypress. We stopped in, bought the pass, and hit the road. This was a park Quin was familiar with because he grew up in the Miami area. He took me down some amazing trails where we were able to see so many birds living their best lives & a ton of gators, just chilling so close to the side of the road. Quin even humored me with a stop at the smallest post office. Unfortunately it had just closed so we were unable to send a letter out, just to say we did. 

Big Cypress has a pretty good size population of Florida panthers (about 30 or so) in the park but we were not able to see any from the road. For some reason neither one of us suggested that we leave the car and take a hike to locate any. It would have been cool to see one hanging out on the side of the road like the gators but that did not affect the greatness of the day at all. There’s always hope for the next visit.

Big Cypress National Preserve – all information you need to plan your trip.