Pack your “Sense of Adventure” and enjoy a fun-filled day of exploring and learning about the places where you live with a new perspective. Join Miami-Dade Parks’ naturalist-guides to some of the most unique and beautiful wilderness parks and preserves of southern Florida. We take pride in minimizing impact on the environment while you encounter the magic of places like the Everglades, Big Cypress Swamp and the Upper Florida Keys.

For your comfort, you will be transported in our air-conditioned 15-passenger Eco-Adventure vans. Seasonal weather conditions, water levels in the Everglades and the Big Cypress Swamp, and mosquito population levels will determine the time of year when tours are scheduled.

What To Bring
On some tours, snacks and beverages will be provided as well as field guides, spotting scopes and walking sticks to help enhance your outdoor experience. Otherwise for your comfort and enjoyment of your Adventure Tour, please consider bringing the following:

• Snack
• Water (1 quart minimum)
• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Wide brimmed hat
• Insect repellent
• Shoes you don’t mind getting wet
• Dress for weather

Wilderness Adventure Tours Highlights
For all dates, times, and tour reservations, call the Eco-Adventures Office – 305-365-3018, Monday–Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
FEE: $40.00/Per Person

Sign up now for one of the following naturalist-guided Adventure Tours.

• Fakahatchee Swamp
  Hours: 8–9 (Full Day Tour)
  Rated: Moderate (A wet wading tour through cypress swamps and former logging roads)
  This is wild Florida at its best! Leave your inhibitions behind and follow an informative naturalist guide into the heart of the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve. In this vast and picturesque swamp, you will discover some of the rarest plants in Florida including the Ghost Orchid. Your footprints can mingle with those of the Florida Panther, Black Bear and Everglades Mink. You will walk along old logging roads created to harvest cypress trees in the 1940’s. Prepare for a rugged adventure. Bring a change of dry clothes and shoes.
• Big Cypress Swamp Exploration
  Hours: 8–9 (Full Day Tour)
  Rated: Easy
  If you like to explore and discover new things, this tour is for you! On this naturalist-guided tour of the Big Cypress National Preserve, a watery wilderness of over 700,000 acres, you will cross the historic Tamiami Trail to Turner River Road. Here you will see an abundance of wildlife from alligators to zebra butterflies, including the endangered Everglades Snail Kite. On Turner River Road, the tour frequently stops to view and learn about colorful wildflowers and wading birds that abound in this area. The road ends at Bear Island where you will enjoy a lunch break in the great outdoors!
• Big Cypress Swamp Tromp
  Hours: 4-5
  Rated: Moderate (A wet wading tour through cypress swamps and prairies)
  Cool your feet on this fun hike exploring wet prairies, sloughs and cypress swamps. Heighten your awareness by looking for wildflowers and the animals that call these habitats home, from reptiles and amphibians to birds, mammals and colorful butterflies. This tour is limited to 10 participants to lessen the impact on the resource, so be sure to sign-up early. Bring a change of clothes and dry shoes.
• Everglades Adventure Tour
  Hours: 5-6
  Rated: Easy
  “There is no other Everglades in the world” wrote Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her classic 1947 book, “Everglades: River of Grass” published the very year that President Harry S. Truman made Everglades National Park a national treasure. On this naturalist-guided tour, we will immerse you in the history of the Everglades, beginning at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center for an overview of the park. Then travel to Royal Palm Hammock for a walk along an elevated boardwalk called Anhinga Trail. Here you will see American Alligators in their natural habitat along with a variety of colorful wading birds. Following lunch at Long Pine Key, your Everglades journey continues to the Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook where you can enjoy a spectacular view of the sweeping sawgrass prairies that make the Everglades special and unique. The tour ends with a stop at “Robert Is Here” fruit stand in Florida City, a place where history is as rich as the tropical milk shakes.
• Loxahatchee Arthur R. Marshall National Wildlife Refuge Tour
  Hours: 8–9 (Full Day Tour)
  Rated: Easy
  Spend a day discovering the northern Everglades, home of the endangered Everglades Snail Kite. This tour features exploring along a cypress swamp boardwalk and fresh water marsh trails. The Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a birdwatchers paradise where the fresh water impoundments always have a good variety of wading birds, migrating shorebirds, waterfowl and alligators. Bring lunch and a drink. Tour leaves from the Greynolds Park Boathouse Visitor Center.
• Everglades Birding Tour
  Hours: 8–9 (Full Day Tour)
  Rated: Easy
  Pack your binoculars and spend a day with a professional bird guide on this wilderness tour into the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. Over 400 bird species can be found in these ecosystems, including some that are not seen anywhere else in the United States such as the endangered Everglades Snail Kite. This trip takes you to various habitats to look for native songbirds, warblers, and hawks, with periodic stops to scan for wading bird activity. Field guides, checklists and spotting scopes will be provided. This is a great opportunity for beginning birders to start their life list!
• Discover The Florida Keys
  Hours: 8–9 (Full Day Tours)
  Rated: Easy
  Enjoy a safe, fun-filled day of adventure on one of our naturalist-guided Eco-Adventure Tours to the enchanting Florida Keys. You will explore mangrove creeks and offshore islands by canoe or kayak and snorkel over some of the only living coral reefs in the United States. Walk through forest-covered trails at Key Largo Hammock State Botanical Park to learn about the natural history of tropical trees with strange names like Gumbo-limbo, Fiddlewood, and White Stopper. This is a good area to watch for tropical birds such as White-crowned pigeons, Mangrove cuckoos and the elusive Black-whiskered vireo. At Long Key State Park, you will discover abundant marine life associated with seagrass beds as you wade through the shallow water. Throughout the day you will learn of the rich natural and cultural history of these chain of islands, as well as sample some of the native foods that make the Florida Keys famous. Call the Eco-Adventures Office for dates and times of specific tours.

Customized Tours
For those who like to explore nature and South Florida’s unique eco-systems, let us help you design your very own naturalist-guided Eco-Adventure Tour of one our listed eco-tour sites. Tell us what your group wants to do and see, and we’ll design a special tour for you. We can accommodate groups from six and up, including organized groups. Special arrangements can be made for box lunches with drinks. For more information and for Group Sales Rates, call the Eco-Adventures Office at 305-365-3018.