Boggy Creek Airboat Adventure
A cool overcast morning on Lake Toho.
A mere 45 minute drive transports you from the hustle and bustle of Disney’s Magic Kingdom to the seemingly remote Southport Regional Park. Located on the southern shore of Lake Tohopekaliga in Osceola County, the 35 acre park is home to Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures. While Southport’s Spanish moss engulfed stillness is intermittently interrupted by the coming and going of open header V8 powered Airboats it remains a fairly peaceful place. The state owned acreage is broken up between a passive recreation area, natural growth restoration area, public boat ramp, and the BC managed area. All areas of the park are covered in beautiful large live oak, and cypress trees naturally decorated with huge flowing tufts of Spanish moss.
A beautiful live oak in the passive recreation area.
Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon larger trees in tropical and subtropical climates
Boggy Creek offers multiple packages to fit your budget and schedule.
All of which can be found on their website. We opted for the 1 Hour Adventure. We landed Captain Andy for our 1 hour wildlife spotting tour. With expert knowledge of the area he schooled us on the native and invasive flora and fauna of the serene 22,700 acre lake.
The word "egret" comes from the French word "aigrette" that means both "silver heron" and "brush", referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season.
A female boat-tailed grackle inspecting a heron.
While zipping around and seeing all sorts of birds is nice. It’s wild gators that we were really on the lookout for.
Turns out that the leading edge of Tropical Storm Nestor’s overcast skies may have kept the bathing beauties from laying out. We didn’t get totally skunked though as we came up on this 3-4 year old poking out from a giant patch of green algae.
The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile endemic to the Southeastern United States.
The snail kite is a locally endangered species in the Florida Everglades, with a population of less than 400 breeding pairs.
Back at the dock Boggy Creek offers an exclusive Native American Village educational demonstration, gem mining sluice, baby gator pool, and Boggy Bottom BBQ restaurant. Unfortunately this time around we didn’t get to sample the food. Next time in town we will make it a point to grab a bite and either a Sunset Tour or a Night Tour.
