Monday, 08 September 2008

Join Florida Hikes!

Membership is free. Members can submit hikes, articles, trip reports, and photos, can post on the forum, and share maps, photos, and personal connections in an online hiking community behind the scenes. Join today!

Image
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve - Six Mile Cypress Slough Print E-mail
Written by Sandra Friend   
Article Index
Six Mile Cypress Slough
Along the Boardwalk
Directions and Map
Page 1 of 3
It’s an immersion into the watery wonder that is natural southwest Florida, without getting your feet wet—a getaway from the hustle and bustle of surrounding Fort Myers.

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

The boardwalk leads deep into the slough
The boardwalk leads deep into the slough
Humidity crept into the still morning area, coloring the swamp with a mild haze. Standing behind his medium-format camera, the photographer watched and waited, waited and watched. A green heron appeared, fluttering down to the edge of the flag pond. Quick! The photographer takes several frames, and moves on. There are plenty of subjects to draw his eye along the boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress.

It’s an immersion into the watery wonder that is natural southwest Florida, without getting your feet wet. Winding 1.4 miles through the slough, the broad wheelchair-accessible boardwalk leads you into a dark cypress strand. Loggers cleared the cypress swamps of Lee County in the 1930s, so most of the trees you see along this hike are young specimens; a few exceptions to the rule are the grand giants overshadowing the edges of the flag ponds, where alligators lurk.

The hike begins above a blackwater swamp, where red maples drop their leaves across the white blooms of duck potato. Pick up an interpretive guide at the beginning of the loop, and watch for green boards in the boardwalk, as they correspond to stops in the interpretive guide.


Prev - Next >>
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]