Our 9 Favorite Hikes in Everglades National Park

Spanning an incredible 1.5 million acres, the Everglades is the 10th largest national park in the United States. As you can imagine, with all this land comes a lot of hiking trails. We’re sharing the top trails we hiked in the Everglades to make planning your upcoming trip easier. We’ll be outlining their distance, difficulty, common wildlife sitings, and more! The Everglades doesn’t have any iconic sites with mesmerizing views, but don’t be fooled, what makes the Everglades so special are the nuances of biodiversity embedded throughout the entire region.

🥾 Our Favorite Hikes at a Glance

🐊 Best Wildlife: Anhinga Trail in Royal Palm

🏆 Favorite Experience: Slog through Shark Valley in Shark Valley

🌿 Most Natural: Rowdy Bend Trail in Flamingo

🌄 Most Impressive Views: Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook Trail in Royal Palm

🌙 Best Night Hike: West Lake Trail in Flamingo

We love using AllTrails to download maps offline so we can always stay on the trail. Sign up for AllTrails+ so you too can download maps offline before your hike!

1. Anhinga Trail – Royal Palm

Anhinga Trail is hands down the most popular trail in all of the Everglades, and it’s our number one as well. Located just within the entrance to the park, it’s a completely paved trail with a boardwalk, making it accessible to hikers of all capabilities! We went at sunset, and the golden light over the clear water made it the perfect place for bird watching, alligator viewing, and taking in the majestic Everglades.

As this trail is quite popular, it can get busy during the day, so we recommend going as early as possible to avoid the crowds. If you get stuck with a lot of crowds, don’t worry! There were only two downsides to this trail:

1. It’s very popular and can be crowded. One of the things we love about hiking is getting lost in nature, which isn’t this trail!
2. It’s short! It was stunning, so it would’ve been the cherry on top if we had a few miles. Fortunately, the Gumbo Jimbo trail is located at the same spot, so you can double dip!

Distance: 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Difficulty: Easy, all paved and boardwalk
Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes
Wildlife: Many birds, alligators, turtles

2. Gumbo Limbo Trail – Royal Palm

Gumbo Limbo Trail is located right by the Anhinga Trail, so it’s quite easy to combine these two trails into one. The loop path takes you through a tropical hardwood hammock, making it a bit shadier than the previous Anhinga Trail. What most impacted us about this quick hike was how layered all the vegetation was. It was almost like an I Spy game trying to spot the wildlife that seamlessly managed to blend into its unique landscape.

Fun fact about Gumbo Limbo Trees! These trees have many traditional medicinal uses, specifically around anti-inflammation. It’s said that wherever you see a Poison Oak in the Everglades, a Gumbo Limbo may be nearby!

Distance: 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Difficulty: Easy, mostly paved
Estimated Time: 8 minutes
Wildlife: Birds, lizards, and turtles

3. Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook Trail – Royal Palm

The Pa-Hay-Okee Overlook Trail is another quick, 0.2-mile loop trail located on a boardwalk and popular among birders. This was Jen’s favorite trail in the Everglades because of the views looking out over the grasslands, which is where the name originates from. Pa-hay-okee is a Seminole phrase that translates to “grassy waters.”

The views of the grasslands from the boardwalk were some of our favorites in the entire park! You really get a feel for the expansiveness of the land on this overlook trail. You’ll want to bring your binoculars and/or camera, as there are a ton of photography and birdwatching opportunities.

Distance: 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Difficulty: Easy, Boardwalk
Estimated Time: 5 minutes
Wildlife: Owls, herons, and turtles

4. Rowdy Bend Trail – Flamingo

We hiked the Rowdy Bend Trail when it was closed for maintenance, but still open for hiking. This made it slightly overgrown in a few areas, increasing the difficulty of the hike, but at the same time made it more natural and less crowded—making it Elliot’s favorite. This trail takes you through shady buttonwoods as well as an open coastal prairie.

On this trail, there were a lot of mosquitos and spiders, but our bug nets were an absolute game-changer! This was a great trail for woodland birdwatching as well as spotting a ton of unique plants. One of our favorites that we saw time and time again was the air plant that grows on trees!

The Rowdy Bend trail ends (or starts) with the end of the Snake Bight trail, so you can have one long hike here if you want! We did that, and recommend it! Although we walked back on the main park road, it was a beautiful 8-mile total hike.

Distance: 5 miles (8.2 km)
Difficulty: Moderate
Estimated Time: 1.5 hours
Wildlife: Crabs, piping plovers, osprey, bald eagles, and more birds

5. Shark Valley Tram Trail – Shark Valley

Located at a different park entrance, The Shark Valley Tram Trail is the most popular, and longest, trail in the Shark Valley area of the Everglades, and definitely worth the drive up from Royal Palm and Flamingo! This 15-mile trail starts at the Shark Valley Visitor Center and then loops back at the Shark Valley Observation Tower, a 45-foot tower that you can climb to see views of the surrounding landscape from above. Even though we only walked about 30 minutes of this trail, we saw so much wildlife!

We must admit that the Shark Valley Trail is a lengthy route. If you’re not up for the walk, but still want to experience this trail, there are a few options we found:

1. Bike the trail – If you’re interested in biking and don’t have your own bicycle, you can rent a bike from Shark Valley starting at $22 per person. If online bike reservations are sold out, there is still a percentage of bikes held for rent on a first-come first-serve basis beginning at 8:30 am.
2. Go on a guided tram tour – There is also a guided tram tour that lasts about 2 hours and costs $33/person. This is an excellent option if you have other hikes or physical activities planned for the other half of the day.

There are also a few shorter trails nearby the Shark Valley Visitor Center that you can consider, the Bobcat Boardwalk Trail and the Otter Cave Hammock Trail.

Distance: 15 miles (24 km)
Difficulty: Easy logistically, but long. Mainly paved or boardwalk.
Estimated Time: 4 hours and 15 minutes to hike
Wildlife: Alligators, turtles, and a variety of birds

Ranger-Led Shark Valley Slough Slog (Wet Walk)

In Shark Valley, we also went on a ranger-led slog which we booked a week in advance. This was hands down our favorite ranger-led experience in the park! We were given a hiking pole to help our footing, but wore our own pants and boots. Reservations open 1 week in advance, so make sure to call at 9 am EST 7 days before your trip to reserve your spot! More information, and the number to call, on the NPS Shark Valley Page.

6. Mahogany Hammock Trail – Royal Palm

The Mahogany Hammock Trail is a quick boardwalk loop trail along the main park road to Flamingo that takes you through a hardwood hammock and past Paurotis Pond. The Gumbo-Limbo trees are abundant in this area of the park, as well as air plants and mahogany trees. In fact, the longest-living mahogany tree in the US is located on this trail!

Distance: 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Difficulty: Easy, all boardwalk
Estimated Time: 7 minutes
Wildlife: Great Egrets

7. Snake Bight Trail – Flamingo

Snake Bight Trail is an out-and-back shady trail that takes you parallel to a creek that drains into the Florida Bay. You might be thinking, don’t you mean “Snake Bite Trail?” But the name is no misspelling! A bight is a bay that is located within a larger bay—in this case, Florida Bay, where the trail ends before heading back.

As the tree canopy is quite thick, we noticed a higher mosquito count than usual, so make sure you have your bug spray on you and, ideally, a bug net on! Just like the Rowdy Bend Trail, this trail is not actively maintained by the park as efforts to let critical, endangered vegetation grow back! This was a plus for us as we felt more entranced with the local ecosystem.

Distance: 3.7 miles (6 km)
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Time: 1 hour
Wildlife: Horseshoe crabs, lizards, birds, snakes, and alligators

8. West Lake Trail – Flamingo

Traveling back down to Flamingo, the West Lake Boardwalk Trail is a quick loop trail on a boardwalk, making it suitable for people of all ages to hike. The trail takes you to West Lake, which is a shallow Mangrove Lake about 1 mile across and 4 feet deep. We went on a free ranger-guided night hike and loved it! We had Ranger Kenzie who was very knowledgeable about stars, space, and the night ecosystem of the Everglades.

Distance: 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Time: 7 minutes
Wildlife: We didn’t see any wildlife on this trail, but it’s great for stargazing!

9. Coastal Prarie Trail – Flamingo

The Coastal Prairie Trail is an out-and-back trail that takes around 3 and a half hours to complete. The majority of this trail is located on an old road that fishermen used to use. We attempted this trail, but it was mosquito central! We had to duck out after only a quarter mile, but next time we come we won’t hike this one after it’s been raining for two consecutive days.

Distance: 12.43 miles (20 km)
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult
Estimated Time: 3 hours and 22 minutes
Wildlife: Pelicans, bald eagles, and spoonbills

We love using AllTrails to download maps offline so we can always stay on the trail. Sign up for AllTrails+ so you too can download maps offline before your hike!

🥾 Even More Hikes in the Everglades

Here are three more hikes that we couldn’t go without mentioning. Although we didn’t have time to hike them, they’re on our bucket list for next time:

• Bear Lake Trail (Flamingo) – 1-hour moderate hike that takes you to the Homestead Canal.
• Nine Mile Pond Paddle Route (Flamingo/Royal Palm) – 2-3 hour paddle route through mangroves and tree islands, canoes or kayaks can be rented from Flamingo Marina for the day.
• Long Pine Key Trail (Royal Palm) – 3.5-hour moderate hike that takes you past several lakes.

🎒 Everglades Hiking Essentials

Here’s a quick list of our top hiking essentials for Everglades National Park. As you have probably heard time and time again, the Everglades gets buggy—real buggy! Thus, sometimes even just bug spray doesn’t cut it. We highly recommend investing in a bug head net if you’re coming for more than a day or two, or planning on a longer hike in general. It was a lifesaver for us! Here are some more things that might come in handy:

• Bug head net
• Strong bug spray
• Water resistant footwear
• Lightweight long-sleeve shirt
• Rainjacket
• Hiking shorts or pants
• Sunscreen
• Refillable water bottle
• Lightweight backpack

📅 Best Time of Year to Hike in the Everglades

There are two seasons in the Everglades—the wet season and the dry season. This affects the temperature, the amount of bugs, and how much wildlife you’re most likely to see. We last visited in late January, during the peak of the dry season. Here’s what you can expect from each.

🔎 Ready to Explore the Everglades?

Pin this guide with the best hikes in Everglades National Park to help plan your trip!

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• The 5 Visitor Centers of the Everglades: Decide Which is Right For You