Entering Coots Bay in Everglades National Park on the Backcountry Boat Tour

Guest Services, Inc., a National Park Service authorized concessionaire, offers a guided tour of the Flamingo Area backcountry lakes of Everglades National Park. Called the Backcountry Boat Tour, this excursion travels up the Buttonwood Canal and across Coot Bay to the mouth of Whitewater Bay (while called bays, they are just large lakes). The tour runs daily year-round and lasts 1.5 hours, so block off 2 hours to allow for arriving a little early, getting your ticket, etc. See the Flamingo Adventures web page for a schedule, fees, and booking information.

The Backcountry Boat Tour departs from the Flamingo Marina and travels three miles up the Buttonwood Canal before reaching Coot Bay.

Buttonwood Canal in the Flamingo unit of Everglades National Park

Typical boat used for the Backcountry Boat Tour of Everglades National Park

While traveling on the canal, you may see an American crocodile, a species found only in the Flamingo Area of the park. In fact, in the United States the American crocodile lives only at the very southern end of Florida and in Puerto Rico. On my trip I saw two baby crocodiles. How the tour guide can spot them, I don’t know, for I couldn’t even see them when the guy was pointing them out to me. Other than the crocodile, the rest of the wildlife I saw on the tour is birds.

Baby crocodile in the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park

American Crocodile near the Flamingo Marina in Everglades National Park

Once the boat entered Coot Bay, which looks like a small lake on the map but is really an enormous body of water, we came across flock after flock of coots, the bird that gives the bay its name.

Flock of coots in Coot Bay, Everglades National Park

I had planned to paddle the Mud Lake Canoe Trail, which crosses a portion of the bay, but this tour dissuaded me. I find paddling on open water boring, and Coot Bay is only one for two large bodies of water covered by the trail.

Canoeing across Coot Bay in Everglades National Park

The tour heads across Coot Bay in a northwest direction towards Whitewater Bay. A narrow waterway connects the two lakes. If you think Coot Bay is big, your jaw will drop at the size of Whitewater Bay. It is the second largest lake in Florida, after Lake Okeechobee. The tour ends upon entering the mouth of Whitewater Bay, about 5.5 miles from the start.

Channel between Coot Bay and Whitewater Bay in Everglades National Park

Whitewater Bay in Everglades National Park

Without your own boat, the Backcountry Boat Tour is the only way to see the interior lakes of the Everglades, and for that reason I highly recommend the tour. It differs enough from the other boat tours, both at Flamingo and at Gulf Coast, to make it worth your time even if you have done the other tours. The wildlife is not as abundant—at least not on my tour—but the ride is relaxing and the narration done by the boat crew is informative.

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