I’m exploring Charlotte County, Florida, this week thanks to the Charlotte Harbor Visitors and Convention Bureau. The reason I am so interested in this area is that it offers abundant adventure travel options. Our focus during this trip is birding and eco-tourism. Today we visited the 90,000-acre Babcock Wilderness Preserve via a converted school bus run by Babcock Wilderness Adventures.
I’ll admit to being skeptical about it at first because I usually don’t care for tours, but I left up impressed. We saw more wildlife than any other Florida outing I’ve been on, and the school-bus-turned-swamp-buggy allowed me to see terrain I normally wouldn’t cross on foot. All of the wildlife is free to come and go as it pleases, but the Babcock Wilderness Preserve provides such a happy home that they naturally tend to hang out there. Parts of the route had us literally driving through swamp and at one point we had to stop until an alligator moved off of the road.
Here are a few pictures of the tour:
This was our ride today.
An anhinga drying its wings.
Gator swimming & tree reflections.
We drove through this river and several sections of swamp.
Comments 4
Very cool photos of the anhinga and alligator. Florida is one of my favorite places. What other wildlife did you see on the tour?
We saw deer, lots of birds including turkey, cows (its still a working ranch), and tons of gators. They also have a rescued panther on the preserve who we visited. She unfortunately can’t be released. The best part was driving through the Telegraph Cypress Swamp, it was a perspective I’ve never had before (seeing swamp from the inside).
send us directions from Daniels parkway
Send us phone number and info about the tour
When is tour ?
How do we sign up for tour ?
Cost ??
Any walking ??
Hi Sandra,
I’m not a representative for Babcock, so I suggest visiting their website and giving them a call for current information. Here is a link: http://www.babcockwilderness.com/about.php
I really enjoyed my visit and there was a very small amount of walking that could have been optional if someone wanted to stay at the bus. However that was over a year ago. Have fun!!