Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary's Boardwalk

Visitors to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary find a gentle, pristine wilderness. A 2.25 mile boardwalk meanders through pine flatwoods, open prairies, and finally into the largest forest of ancient bald cypress in North America. These impressive trees, relatives of the redwood, tower 130 feet into the sky and have a girth of 25 feet. Their massive branches are draped with mosses, lichens, air-plants, orchids and ferns.

The forest is also home to hundreds of alligators, otters, Florida black bears, white-tailed deer and red-bellied turtles.

The boardwalk winds through the swamp's two "lettuce lakes," wide, shallow soup bowls that are favorite feeding grounds for wildlife. During the dry spring months, birds and reptiles congregate at the lettuce lakes in a competitive feeding frenzy, one of nature's most exciting, interesting performances.

Almost 200 birds are permanent or temporary residents of the Sanctuary. Year round, visitors see egret, ibis, heron, limpkin and anhinga. Songbirds, including black-throated green warblers and yellow-billed cuckoos, visit during the spring and fall as they migrate between the tropical and temperate regions of America. Winter visitors include pine warblers and painted buntings. Corkscrew is world renowned for supporting the largest colony of nesting wood storks in the United States.

Corkscrew's water is actually a slow moving river that flows to the southwest towards the Gulf of Mexico.
Plants and trees help to filter the water, keeping it clean and clear.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is owned and operated by the National Audubon Society and acclaimed as the crown jewel of the Audubon's sanctuaries. Audubon's first encounter with Corkscrew was in 1912, when it dispatched wardens to protect egrets and other birds from plume hunters.

Today, Audubon is involved in restoring the Everglades and preserving the watershed to ensure a healthy ecosystem for the people and wildlife of Southwest Florida.