Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - Naples, Florida

photo by Joe Leone Photography

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was an experience we were not expecting. Partially because we did not do our homework first. This is a beautiful place and I have seen lots of photos from here with lots of wildlife. The sanctuary hosts a 2.5 mile boardwalk through pine flatwoods, wet prairie, around a marsh, and finally goes into the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America.

Our first surprise was the entry fee. Parking was free, but admission to the sanctuary was $14 per person. We did not notice that when we were on the website. I did return to the website later on and found a link on the main page that said plan your visit. When I clicked on it, it showed the address, hours of operation and admission fees. Somehow we missed that. We decided since we were already here to continue on anyway.

Once inside, the first thing we noticed was the boardwalk. As first sight, it looks like every other boardwalk, but then when you start walking on it, the boards clank. Every few steps, you hear the boards slapping against the supports making all kinds of noise. This was throughout the entire boardwalk. There are also guided tours with what seemed like many tour guides. When they are talking to their group, they seem to be almost yelling they talk so loud. We could actually still hear them after we had long passed the group. Between the boardwalk clanking and the noise coming from the tour guides, I'm surprised they were able to see any wildlife.

The other issue we had is we must have either come at the wrong time of day or wrong time of year. Yes we saw some wildlife, but nothing like what we expected from their website and all the photos I had seen online. We did a video of the sanctuary also so head over to our YouTube channel to view it and also to our photography website to view the photos we captured.

photo by Joe Leone Photography