Start of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

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See the Hiking web page for an interactive location map and information on required backcountry permits.

This hike was done during the dry season (winter). During the summer the area may be underwater.

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Length: 4.75 miles, round trip
Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: easy cardiovascular-wise, but muddy terrain makes it a technically difficult hike

One part of me feels that the Gator Hook Trail needs to be condemned, while the other part realizes that it offers one of the only opportunities in Big Cypress National Preserve to hike into the swampy backcountry on an established trail. Even during the dry season you will be covered in mud, wet, and lucky not to twist an ankle on the subterranean holes and cypress roots hidden deep in the mud. This hike is definitely not for everyone, particularly those dressed in their Sunday best and looking for a leisurely stroll.

The Gator Hook Trail is located on Loop Road (CR 94), a dusty dirt road within Big Cypress National Preserve that ensures your car will need as good a washing as you will after hiking the trail. I do not recommend driving on this road if you have a convertible, for dust will find its way into the interior through every crack in the car’s design. Luckily the trailhead is not too far down after turning off of the Tamiami Trail. Roadside parking is available, as are two covered picnic tables and a primitive restroom facility.

The hike starts off innocently enough through a grassland flanked by Dwarf Cypress trees, a name given to normal-but-stunted Cypress trees that grow in nutrient-depleted soil that dries out during the winter. The larger Cypress trees grow in areas that remain wet all year round.

The terrain at the start of the trail ranges from hard-packed earth to nearly dry mud holes. People have worn paths through the grass around the muddy areas, often times creating long, secondary trails. If you end up on one of these just be sure to keep an eye on the real trail. If you get mixed up, look for the yellow blazes on the trees (yellow paint blotches). The Gator Hook Trail is well marked, and you can usually see from one yellow blaze to the next. Also, if at this point you are saying to yourself, “This is too muddy for me,” you might as well turn around now because you haven’t even come to The Gauntlet of Mud™.

Typical terrain at the start of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

After about a quarter mile the muddy areas disappear due to a slight rise in elevation. This dry stretch is actually an old logging road, and you can see the canals on either side from which dirt was originally dug and then piled into the center to create the elevated road bed. The difference between the elevation in swamp and dry ground is often only a few feet.

You will soon come upon the source of the potential ankle twisting that you will encounter once the trail gets really muddy. Big Cypress and the Everglades sit on a large sheet of limestone covered by a very thin layer of soil. Over millions of years, water has eroded the soft rock and pitted it with deep holes. Here you will see this geological formation exposed and can experience just how tough it is to travel over. Now imagine this very same pitted surface with a foot of mud covering it. You have no idea what you are going to step into every time you put your foot down.

Pitted, limestone terrain on Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

The other obstacle that makes the hike treacherous is the Cypress tree roots, called “knees,” that stick out of the ground, some just barely breaking the surface, which makes them hard to spot. I can’t tell you how many times I tripped over them, but at one point I counted the number of stumbles I had during a ten minute period and then extrapolated this to come up with an estimate of at least 100 stumbles during the hike. The knees are also buried in the mud up ahead.

Cypress knees on Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

At .8 mile into the hike you come to a large swamp area. Either the National Park Service or previous hikers made a bridge out of old tree limbs, and you are able to cross without getting wet, though you had better have good balance or you are likely to fall in. Big Cypress swamps generally have very clear water, but here the water had some sort of film over it, and it looked pretty disgusting.

Old logs form a bridge over a swampy area of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

A quarter mile farther down the trail is another swamp crossing, but this time there are no bridges and wading across is the only option. This is where most people turn around. The pool of water is about 100 feet wide and a foot or so deep, so unless you have on knee-high wading boots, from here on out you will be hiking in wet shoes. I had been on a Ranger-led Big Cypress Disccovery Walk earlier and learned that there is nothing lurking in this water that will get you. It is just the same dry ground you saw earlier, but with water on it. There is no muck to sink into, just sticks and other vegetation on top of solid ground.

Clear water of the Big Cypress swamp along the Gator Hook Trail, Big Cypress National Preserve

Once across the swamp you will find that the trail becomes overgrown due to few people proceeding this far. The ground is dry and the environment is now jungle-like. No telling what types of vegetation you are going to brush up against, so be sure to wear long pants. I did this hike in February and ran into a few mosquitoes around this time, but nothing that warranted applying repellent. However, I definitely recommend bringing some with you as the mosquito density can change from year to year.

Overgrown section of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

At the 1.5-mile mark you must cross a creek. People have put down a few branches and other ground clutter in an attempt to bridge the water, but since your boots are already wet at this point, just trudge on through. It’s not very wide—a good athlete could probably run and jump across.

No matter how overgrown the trail gets, it is diligently marked with the yellow blazes. You don’t really need them for navigation since there is only one way to go, but the blazes do provide comfort. There were plenty of times when I was wondering if I had missed a turn somewhere because the trail gets so overgrown in spots that it certainly doesn’t look like much of a trail, but when I saw a blaze I knew that I was still on the right track.

At 1.75 miles into the hike you come out of the jungle and enter what I call The Gauntlet of Mud™. This has to be one of the most unique hiking experiences I have ever had. Trees line either side of a muddy path, which is only a few feet wide. It’s almost as if they were planted to form a long boulevard. Earlier you could walk through the grass to avoid the mud, but not here. This is literally an ally of Cypress trees with a mud pit running down the middle.

Gauntlet of Mud™ on Gator Hook Trail, Big Cypress National Preserve

It is in the Gauntlet of Mud™ that you encounter the aforementioned sunken Cypress knees and pitted limestone floor. I stumbled so many times that it became comical, like I was in some sort of a Three Stooges movie. The trail eventually becomes two lanes, most likely created from hikers trying to get around the original Gauntlet, but instead they just made a second lane of mud.

Two lanes eventually form through the Gauntlet of Mud™ on Gator Hook Trail, Big Cypress National Preserve

The Gauntlet of Mud™ seems to go on forever, and you’ll step into some shoe sucking mud along the way. This is unexpectedly deep mud, so deep that when you try to step forward you are likely to have your shoe sucked right off your foot. You can pretty much bet that you stepped into one of those limestone holes whenever you hit mud this deep. If you have ever thought you were on the last step of a staircase only to be surprised by one more step, that’s exactly how it feels to fall into one of these holes. You can go from ankle-deep to calf-deep mud in an instance.

Typical, ankle-deep mud on the Gauntlet of Mud™ on the Gator Hook Trail, Big Cypress National Preserve

The Gauntlet of Mud™ finally ends at 2.1 miles into the hike, making it the longest three-tenths of a mile that you will ever experience. The only good thing to say about it is that there is no quicksand. Don’t forget that you must come back this same way. Once out of the mud, you are back into a jungle that is so overgrown that you almost need a machete to hack your way forward. At this point I began to wonder if the trail really comes to an end. How do you know when to stop? Did I reach the end some time ago and am now Lewis-and-Clarking it™ all the way to the Everglades? Is this trail a sick joke played on hikers by the National Park Service? Is there a pot of gold waiting at the end? No sooner do you ask yourself these questions when you see another yellow blaze. The trail started off fun, but is has quickly become un-fun and you begin to wonder what exactly is the point.

Overgrown section of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

As it turns out, the trail does come to an end, only about a quarter mile after exiting the Gauntlet of Mud™. While there is no pot of gold at the end, there is a trunk full of knickknacks and garbage that hikers have left behind, plus a bench on which you can sit and take a break. However, mosquitoes are a bother by this time and sitting still just makes you an easy target. Unless you have applied mosquito repellent you’ll want to turn around and head back to the parking lot. Yes, you go back the exact same way you came in.

Bin of stuff at the end of the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

In truth, once you get to the end of the Gauntlet of Mud™ you might as well turn around, because that’s where the fun ends, if you can call walking in mud fun. Of course there are those who will say that the Gauntlet of Mud™ doesn’t sound very fun either, so maybe it is wise to turn around before crossing it. Or that walking through the swamp water doesn’t sound like much fun. For some people there just isn’t any reason to hike the trail at all. As the saying goes, “It is what it is.”

It took me about one hour and forty-five minutes to hike the 2.3 miles to the end. That’s a very slow pace for crossing flat terrain, even for me. This just goes to show how much the mud will slow you down. This is without a doubt the toughest trail in Big Cypress National Preserve, but not because it will get you huffing and puffing. By the time I got back I had twisted my ankle four times, fallen into the Gauntlet of Mud™ twice, and tripped well over 100 times on the Cypress knees—you can’t go twenty feet without tripping. I also believe I touched some poison ivy on this trail. I came up with a mild case about a week later, and this is the only trail I was on with thick vegetation.

The Gator Hook Trail is certainly unique, but it’s appeal is limited to only the most adventurous hikers. I’m not sure if I can give a blanket recommendation for a trail in which the Gauntlet of Mud™ is the highlight, but ultimately, if you visit in the dry season like 70% of the tourists who come to Big Cypress, this and the Ranger-led Big Cypress Discovery Walks are the only two options for experiencing the true swamp environment short of wandering off aimlessly through the backcountry. I’m glad I did it, but certainly would not hike this trail again, and I enjoyed the Ranger walk much more. If you can get on that tour, then that’s the swamp experience I recommend.

Crayfish (??) makes a home in the Gauntlet of Mud™ on the Gator Hook Trail at Big Cypress National Preserve

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