Slough Slog Wet Walk at Everglades National Park
The Ranger-led Slough Slog is likely to be the most memorable part of your trip to Everglades National Park. This two-hour walk leads through a slough, which is a shallow, swamp-like body of water that appears to be stagnant but actually flows slowly over time. Yes, you’ll actually be walking in the water, which can get waist high or deeper. The tour is free and typically departs every day from the Royal Palm Visitor Center starting mid-December and continuing through the end of March, but be sure to check the National Park Service’s Calendar web page for the latest schedule. Reservations are required, and you can make one either at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center or by calling (305) 242-7700 no earlier than one week in advance. Space is limited, so make a reservation as soon as possible. Participants must be at least 12 years old.
On the day of your tour, stop at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center to pick up your ticket. Give yourself enough time to then travel to the Royal Palm Visitor Center, which is no more than fifteen minutes away. From there you will follow the tour guide to a spot along Main Park Road, the road that leads to the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park. You then simply walk off the road and into the slough. In fact, you can do this at anytime on your own. You do not need to be with a tour guide.
Start of the Slough Slog Wet Walk
To participate, you must wear long pants and lace-up shoes. The bottom of the slough can be muddy, and if you sink in the mud wearing sandals, when you pull your foot out your sandal will no longer be there. There are also holes in the terrain. Everglades National Park sits 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, so you’ll have no idea what you are about to step in every time you put your foot down. While the water is crystal clear if undisturbed, once people stir up the slit, you can’t see a thing. The only one who may be able to see is the tour guide at the front of the line. To keep from falling, walking sticks are provided.
Type of terrain at the bottom of the slough
While the water is not likely to come up much higher than your waist, there is a good chance that you’ll take a spill, so do not bring an expensive camera or any other electronic devices that aren’t waterproof. For this trip I used my cheap point-and-shoot underwater camera.
The tour guide stops at various points to talk about the plants and animals that live in the slough, as well as the geology of the area. The first stop is in an area of dwarf cypress trees, and the tour ends at a cypress dome where full-size cypress trees grow. They are the same species of tree, it’s just that the dwarf cypress live in the shallow water where there are very few nutrients, whereas the cypress trees in the cypress dome grow from a deeper depression in the ground. Nutrients collect in this pit, allowing the trees to grow taller.
A National Park Service volunteer talks about the ecology of the slough
Dwarf Cypress trees in Everglades National Park
Eventually the tour ends up in the deeper waters of the cypress dome. This area is more like a forest, as the trees are much bigger and there are many more of them.
Larger cypress trees growing in the cypress dome area
After listening to what the tour guide has to say, you’ll have a few minutes to walk around on your own before the group heads back to the road.
Walking around in the cypress dome area
Before attending the walk through the slough, I wouldn’t have ventured into such an area for a million dollars. Snakes, alligators, leeches—definitely not for me. But with a group of people it’s not scary at all, and you soon realize there is nothing to worry about. If you look at the dry ground near the road, the slough is nothing more than the same ground with water on it. There’s nothing lurking down below that is going to get you…hopefully.
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Last updated on February 25, 2021
