This wildlife drive meanders along the marshes of Lake Apopka near Orlando. It is a 11 mile one-way drive that gives one a unique opportunity to see and experience the wildlife in its natural habitat. It is managed by the St. Johns Water Management District. And it is free!
An Epic Bike Ride!
We wanted to take the drive, but discovered that it is only open on weekends. Disappointing at first until we found out that it is open to hikers and bikers thru the week. So we ventured out on our ebikes.

It was going to be a warm day so we got an early start. The ride was along gravel roads that make up the water management area.

Alligators Galore
We couldn’t believe the number of alligators that we were seeing. When we first parked the car we talked to a couple of women who had been out riding their bikes. They said they saw a few gators but they were out in the lake. We must have timed it right because we saw 13 gators in the first two miles!

We saw so many alligators and most of them were in the water. Then we came upon this big one sunning right by the road.

Fortunately a water management truck passed us and we asked him to scare the gator away.

It was amazing how quickly the gator slid down the bank….of course we knew it could just as easily come up the bank too! We did get by without any incident.
We had to go by gators several times.

Seeing the wild side of Florida
The trip was just beautiful. We saw lots of birds and water plants.

The trail has absolutely no shade and can get very hot. There was one rest area with picnic tables that we stopped at.

The gators seemed to enjoy the sun. The warmer it got, the more we saw.

We decided to turn back as it was getting pretty warm. Our final count of alligators seen was 24! Incredible!

Seeing all sorts of birds, we wondered why the gators didn’t eat them. A bit later we stopped to watch a couple of gators swimming and we witnessed a gator going after a duck. The speed that the gator approached the duck with was unreal. It didn’t end well for the duck.
This was a great trip and was really nice. We highly recommend it if you are in the area.