Big Cypress National Preserve Scenic Drives (click to enlarge)

There are two scenic drives along dirt roads at Big Cypress National Preserve, the Turner River-Upper Wagonwheel-Birdon Road Loop and the Loop Road. Both form loops by using the paved Tamiami Trail (Highway 41). These are excellent places to see the area’s wildlife, but unfortunately I can’t bring myself to recommend either of them simply for the sake of spotting wildlife or viewing the scenery. The dirt roads at Big Cypress are the dustiest that I have ever driven on, and I have driven on more dirt roads than the average person. The surface is made of crushed limestone, which is essentially chalk. I have passed people standing alongside the road and have seen them literally disappear into a cloud of dust like a sandstorm in a disaster movie. If another car passes you, it takes a couple of minutes of driving time for the air to clear. And heaven help you if you get behind another car—you might as well be driving in heavy fog. The interiors of convertibles and other soft top vehicles will be inundated with dust, and though enclosed vehicles will fare much better, they will still need a car wash afterwards.

I don’t want to discourage driving on the roads to reach hiking trails, campgrounds, or backcountry access areas, but for simply viewing wildlife and scenery, there are alternate avenues. Yes, there is often a lot of wildlife along the dirt roads, but you can see the same wildlife in the canals along the Tamiami Trail or at the boardwalks and overlooks at the Nathaniel P. Reed Visitor Center, Oasis Visitor Center, H.P. Williams Roadside Park, and the Kirby Storter Roadside Park. Better yet, rent a canoe or kayak and take a journey on the Turner River or Halfway Creek. You haven’t really seen an alligator in the wild until you have been in the water with one. Or hike on the park’s best trail, the Florida Trail. It can be accessed from paved parking areas on I-75 and the Tamiami Trail. There are plenty of ways to see the wildlife at Big Cypress National Preserve without dirtying your car.

With that said, here are descriptions of the two scenic drives:

TURNER RIVER-UPPER WAGONWHEEL-BIRDON ROADS SCENIC DRIVE

A 17-mile scenic loop drive can be formed using the Turner River, Upper Wagonwheel, and Birdon Roads. All roads were built in the 1950s by digging ditches on either side of the proposed road bed and then piling the dirt in the middle to create a road that was raised higher than the surrounding water. Today these canals remain filled with water even during the dry season and alligators, fish, and birds make them their winter homes. Unlike the park’s other scenic drive, Loop Road, which runs through a well shaded Cypress Swamp, the roads in the Turner River area are out in the open and exposed to the sun, so you are more likely to see alligators here. I found the bird concentration on Loop Road to be better.

The Turner River Road is the dustiest of the two scenic drives because people tend to travel at much higher speeds here than on Loop Road. The goal of most drivers on Turner River Road is to get to the Bear Island Backcountry Unit as quickly as possible. The higher the speed, the more dust that gets kicked up. I never got out of my car to see alligators or birds because I had passed wildlife spectators along the road and saw them disappear into the cloud of dust created when I drove by them, and I had no intention of enduring the same. People drive much slower on Loop Road because viewing wildlife is the main attraction and they don’t want to miss anything.

There is nothing of interest—trails, campgrounds, backcountry access—along the Upper Wagonwheel and Birdon Roads. In fact, when I drove these I wasn’t even aware that they were part of a “scenic drive” and figured that their sole purpose was to provide home owners in the area with access to their property. Even when I drove the Turner River Road I never thought of it as anything other than the road you take to Bear Island.