THE EARNEST TRAVELER
If the Everglades has a single must-do, it's the Anhinga Trail — a short boardwalk where alligators bask below your feet and anhingas dry their wings an arm's length away. No other easy walk in America delivers this much wildlife, this close, this reliably.
The Best Short Walk in the Park
The Anhinga Trail is a flat, paved-and-boardwalk 0.8-mile loop at the Royal Palm area, a few minutes inside the Homestead entrance. It crosses Taylor Slough, a marsh that holds water even in the dry season — which is exactly why the wildlife concentrates here and why it's the park's most famous trail.
Wildlife an Arm's Length Away
This is the Everglades up close: alligators hauled out on the banks and drifting under the boardwalk, anhingas (the trail's namesake) spearing fish and spreading their wings to dry, plus herons, egrets, cormorants, turtles, and gar in the clear water. In the dry-season peak you can see it all in a single easy loop — bring a camera.
When to Go
Come in the dry season (December–April) and early in the morning. As the surrounding marsh dries out, animals crowd into Taylor Slough's permanent water, and dawn brings them out active and the light soft. Midday in summer is hot, buggy, and quieter — the same trail, a fraction of the payoff.
Make a Loop of Royal Palm
Right beside the Anhinga Trail is the Gumbo Limbo Trail, a shady 0.4-mile loop through a tropical hardwood hammock — a completely different habitat, and a cool contrast to the open marsh. Walk both from the same Royal Palm parking area for the perfect short introduction to the park.
Gators here are wild and often right beside the boardwalk — never approach or feed them, and keep kids close. Note too that black vultures at the Royal Palm lot have a habit of pulling rubber trim off parked cars; the park offers tarps — use one.
A camera and sun cover for the park's best wildlife walk.