Boggy Creek’s new Butterfly Garden provides educational Florida eco-tourism
Boggy Creek, located at the headwaters of the Florida Everglades, is an edutainment, landscaped eco-park. And, with their newest addition of Lily’s Butterfly Garden and Lorelei’s Critter Collection, guests of all ages can explore and learn about Florida’s natural wonders. Plus, for those visiting the Orlando area, this is one of the closest locations you can get to visit the Everglades, wild gators, and take an airboat ride.
Lily’s Butterfly Garden and Lorelei’s Critter Collection is a new area, located in the middle of the Boggy Creek eco-park. This walkthrough exhibit features seven species of butterflies native to Florida and a critter collection of Bobwhite Quail, Wood Ducks, and turtles. This new space can be utilized for more than just butterfly education and exploration. Boggy Creek is also opening this space to signature tea parties, birthdays and small wedding offerings.
Alongside the new exhibit, Boggy Creek also offers a gator pond, a BBQ restaurant, a Native American village exhibit, Florida’s largest mining trough, and, of course, their airboat tours.
I took my first ever airboat ride during the butterfly exhibit’s grand opening night. We went for a scenic ride onto the headwaters of the Everglades during sunset. If you have never done an airboat tour, you may want to know some things beforehand. The ride is much smoother than I expected. Even as we went over foliage, or took turns, the ride was much softer and calmer than I had thought it would be. Boggy Creek provides ear protection and life jackets. While adults weren’t required to wear life jackets, I do recommend everyone use the ear protection. The boat is quite loud, but the ear muffs brought it to a good level. And, when we found wildlife, our captain would slow down, allowing us to take off our ear muffs and hear his educational comments.
Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures offers daytime, sunset, night and private airboat tours. Even with our full boat, and myself sitting in the middle, I felt I had great views. But, private options are a possibility for your group as well. We were lucky that night to have a perfect fall, Florida evening. But, almost the entire Boggy Creek eco-park is based outdoors, so you will want to check the weather ahead of making the drive there.
You can head to the Boggy Creek Airboat Adventure website to learn more, find directions and make reservations.
