Royal Palm Visitor Center

This was a great park and the visitors center was ok too. There wasn’t as much staff there that could give information or watch the visitors, but there was plenty of wildlife. Alligators came right up to the walkway in a few different areas to sunbathe. We saw a ton of other animals as well.

This was our first stop after the main entrance and it didn't disappoint. Lots of wildlife and an easy walk over the boardwalk to see Anhinga, gators, and other local fauna. Don't forget to check out the Gumbo Limbo trail as well, a completely different experience and trail compared to the Anhinga trail

Nice little visitor center inside of the parks and we were able to go inside the center despite the government shutdown (last time the government shutdown, we weren’t able to get inside of the park)! They also had several hiking trails to chose from including a boardwalk that looped back to the center. Lovely place overall and was able to see a gator which was really neat to see since you wouldn’t have a chance to see them during the summer and rainy season.

As always, there were great educational presentations by knowledgeable Rangers. The trails were a good experience with lots of wildlife and plants to see. The Everglades are a treasure.

Great place to visit. Plenty of wildlife to see. Easy walk on boardwalk.

Lovely Everglades park visit with a couple of walking trails. The boardwalk trail went through the mangrove. We saw loads of birds, dragonflies, fish, and turtles.

We visited on a Thursday afternoon in late Dec 2024. We were on a Everglades Institute Tour (tour guide Maria was the best) which was great because we were all given ear pieces to listen to our tour guide. We also noticed a lot of other guests just started following us around and listening to our tour guide. There was still plenty of spaces in the parking lot when we arrived around 2/3PM. They Visitor Center was open. There were bathrooms on one side and a small store at the other. There are NPS Cancellation Stamps inside the store. We hiked the Anhinga Trail with our tour guide. We saw both a 6 foot long diamond back rattle snake and a baby cotton mouth within 20 feet of each other right by the first pond near the parking lot. Our tour guide told every to stand back but no one listened and wanted to get closer to take pictures. We just ended up walking away. There were so many different birds as we walked down. My favorite were the colorful purple gallinule and how they walked on top of the lily pads. There were also plenty of anhingas to see. We saw 3 alligators on our hike on the trail. There was one at the pond next to the parking lot/visitor center and 2 basking side by side at one of the overlooks. We also saw a large soft shell turtle. There was also your typical cormorant, herons, storks and egrets. There was a ton of fish and most recognizable are the gars with their long snouts. Because we were on a guided tour we couldn't really explore on our own. We really wanted to hike the Gumbo Limbo Trail but it wasn't on our itinerary. So we would most certainly come back here if we were to visit the everglades again. Definitely worth the stop and it's so close to the park entrance.

A great place to observe Everglades gators and birds. You can access multiple trails from this location,