Snake Bight Trail is a 3.7 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Ochopee, Florida that offers the chance to see wildlife and is good for all skill levels. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, and nature trips and is accessible year-round.
kid friendly
hiking
nature trips
walking
views
wildlife
Directions from Flamingo, FL: Snake Bight Trail is located four miles north of Flamingo just above Mrazek Pond along Main Park Road. Signage is good. (Restrooms available just north at West Lake.)
Flat, short, straight. Moderate mosquitos. Ends at a nice lookout to Florida Bay.
One of the few real hiking trails that I attempted during my visit last Thanksgiving weekend. This would be a great trail in the dead of a cold south Florida winter or if you are 100% prepared for the onslaught. Despite my near heroic efforts, as well as being covered head to toe and doused with bug spray, I was not able to complete it. They really should rename it Mosquito Bite Trail. If you are looking for a challenge, this truly qualifies.
We completed this trail in early march. The mosquitos were not bad, but we did have pants on and used bug spray. Nice flowers and butterflies along the way. A nice trail to observe the different vegetation around the area. Great view of the beginning of the keys at the end. I recommend.
This trail is listed as 1 of the top 100 trails in America and I drove here from a great distance. However, I was unprepared. I showed up in a pair of shorts and an Under Armor shirt and could barely tolerate the bites while I was spraying down and changing into my pants. I started the trail and turned back after only a 100 yards. You need to gear up for this trail. I will try again if I can get a head net. I have never experienced an attack by insects like that, incredible!
Previous attempts to hike this trail were thwarted due to the incredible amount of mosquitoes, but with a couple other friends wanting to do it, I decided "what the heck". Covering ourselves with bug spray, and me wearing a long sleeve tshirt and jeans, we set out...to be honest, this trail is really kind of boring. It is a straight line through a dense mangrove forest with a few sunny, grassy breaks. We saw no wildlife other than a black racer and a red shouldered hawk. Ending up at the bay we were greeted by a low tide with all the shore birds pretty far out. We did see some spoonbbills, though, which was nice.
My best advice is to do this one in the winter months so the mozzies might be a bit lighter. Plus, it is not fun to be wearing long sleeves and long pants when it is 90 degrees in a breezeless swamp. I won't be doing this one again , but it was nice to finally get it off my bucket list!
Mosquitoes! This trail would have been a 4 or 5 without the mosquitoes. I have never seen anything like this. About .5 of the way in we discussed turning back, but we decided to power through. We doused ourselves in bug spray, but there were so many hovering, it looked like we were covered in fur. If you missed even a tiny spot, you were bitten repeatedly. Because of the bug spray, they went for whatever they could which meant your nose etc. At the end of the trail you get reprieve when it opens up to the water. We stayed there a while, used up the rest of our bug spray, and ran back using grass fronds to fan our faces keeping them out of our orifices.