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Naples Bird Rookery Swamp: It’s a beauty for hiking, biking, wildlife

NAPLES — Few South Floria hiking or biking trails rival Bird Rookery Swamp Trail near Naples for scenery and wildlife. It’s a gem; the trail deserves to be known outside the Naples area.

I had been to Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary many times and have always loved it. But I did not know about this 12 mile trail on adjacent land, a few miles south, which opened in 2011.

CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail passes through wetlands full of cypress and red maple trees.
CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail passes through wetlands full of cypress and red maple trees. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Nine reasons why CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail is great

  • It’s free. It’s owned and managed by the South Florida Water Management District as part of CREW, the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed.

  • It’s a great trail for fat-tire bikes. The trail, following a roadway built for cypress logging 50 years ago, is a wide grass path above the water level, so it is rarely muddy. It is a wonderful surface for walking. After we hiked 8 miles of the trail one day, we returned a second time to bike the whole loop. There is occasional soft ground, but the scenery and experience were worth it. 
The 12-mile Corkscrew Bird Rookery Swamp Trail is popular with bicyclists on hyprid or mountain bikes.
The 12-mile CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail is popular with bicyclists on hybrid or mountain bikes.(Photo: Bonnie Gross)
  • It’s 12 miles long, but you don’t have to go the whole way. That’s a great length for bicycles and means hikers can make a day of it and go as far as they’d like. Those who want a shorter hike can enjoy a quarter-mile-long wooden boardwalk that starts about a block from the parking lot. At the end of the boardwalk is a pretty section of trail that features deeper ponds (and a huge gator on our visit.) Many families with strollers or less mobile members were using this first section of the Bird Rookery Swamp Trail.
Pond full of baby gators at Corkscrew Bird Rookery Swamp Trail .
Pond full of baby gators at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail . (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

  • It is full of wildlife. We saw dozens of gators, some sunning on the pathway so close we gingerly walked around them, some in ponds alongside the trail, including one pond with 13 baby gators about 18 inches long, some piled atop each other. Visitors have seen deer, bobcats, otters, black bear and even Florida panthers. (This is prime panther habitat.)
Corkscrew Bird Rookery Swamp Trail has excellent signage.
CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail has excellent signage.
  • The cypress swamp is exquisite. Most of the trail is lined with forested wetland dominated by bald cypress and red maples trees. The trees are full of airplants; the water is clear with duckweed and water lettuce. It is the best of pure natural Florida.
  • It’s so quiet. I love a trail where all I hear are birds and nature – no road sounds, no power tools.
Good birding at Corkscrew Bird Rookery Swamp Trail.
Good birding at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)
  • The trail is very well-marked with excellent signage.
  • The birding is excellent. Even before we started the Bird Rookery Swamp trail, the pond next to the parking lot had a woodstork, great white egret and a tricolor heron. Along the way, we saw hawks, big pileated woodpeckers, kingfishers and the whole range of Everglades wading birds. I used my Merlin bird-ID app and identified many birds I could hear but not see — red-bellied woodpecker, yellow-rumped warbler, white-eye vireo, great crested flycatcher, gray catbird, common yellowthroat.
There are 12 miles of trails at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail.
There are 12 miles of trails at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Clearly, this facility is a hiker’s and biker’s dream, with enough options to warrant repeat visits.

A snowy egret along the trail was unbothered as we hiked past. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)
A snowy egret along the trail was unbothered as we hiked past. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Visiting CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail

Address: 1295 Shady Hollow Blvd. West, Naples. CREW Trust: 239-657-2253.

Guided walks: CREW offers a schedule of guided walks in winter.

Hours: The trail is open sunrise to sunset seven days a week.

Young gators were plentiful in February at Corkscrew Bird Rookery Swamp Trail.
Young gators were plentiful in February at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail. (Photo: Bonnie Gross)

Amenities: There is a portable toilet and picnic tables at the parking lot and benches and a few picnic tables along the trail.

Directions: From I-75, take exit 111, Immokalee Road, CR 846, and head east. Follow that road as it curves north and watch for Shady Hollow Boulevard, where you’ll turn left.  From Alligator Alley, exit on SR 29 west and take a left on Oil Well Road, taking you east. Turn right on Immokalee Road and head north until Shady Hollow Boulevard, where you turn left.

CREW’s page on Bird Rookery Swamp Trail.

Current trail conditions

Things to do in Naples

 Things to do just north of Naples

Things to do east of Naples

 Things to do south of Naples


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James Jordan

Tuesday 7th of February 2023

12.20.22: One our favorite out of the way places. You often have to walk in water crossings, so take appropriate footwear; also no drinking water on an often hot and sunny trail. There's one great big huge gator that regularly lies all the way across the trail in a sunny spot half way; best not to mess around- just wait her out or turn around. Have fun!

Allison Vincent

Thursday 3rd of March 2022

Thanks Bonnie for such a wonderfully written review of our popular CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trail!

Here is a current link to our events page where guests can sign up for the weekly guided tours at CREW Bird Rookery Swamp. https://crewtrust.org/events/

Allison Vincent CREW Trust Communications Director & Volunteer Coordinator

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