Last week in Florida, my wife Laura and I visited the Disney Wilderness Preserve. Maybe you haven't heard of the Preserve, a 12,000 acre sanctuary located about 15 miles south of Walt Disney World. From our hotel on US 192, it took us about 30 minutes to drive there. The Preserve is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy, a group devoted to preserving natural habitats and wildlife. The Preserve was established in 1992 with cooperation from Disney, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, The Nature Conservancy, and others. I suppose Disney took an interest in preserving some natural spaces as they started developing more of their Florida property. Much of the Preserve was formerly a cattle ranch. You may remember reading in one of the Disney annual reports several years back about how Disney bought the Walker Ranch and donated it to the Nature Conservancy.

The Disney Wilderness Preserve Learning Center as seen from the beginning of the Interpretive Trail.

For visitors, the Disney Wilderness Preserve offers three trails for walking. The first is an interpretive trail, which is 0.8 miles long. At the beginning of the trail are booklets with explanations for markers along the trail; you can stop at each marker and read in the booklet about what you are seeing. There are two other trails, one around 2 miles long and the other around 4 miles. These trails take you through the swamp areas and to the shores of the nearby lake. At times on the weekends, there are also guided tours and buggy tours. Admission is $2 for adults, or $1 for Nature Conservancy members.

A view into the woods on one of the swamp trails

Our intrepid explorers (that would be Laura and me) decided to first venture out on the interpretive trail. This trail was quite informative, as we saw several different types of trees, as well as a gopher tortoise burrow and a few birds native to the area. We learned that fires actually help nature, by clearing out the land so that more vegetation can grow. Several types of vegetation are actually dependent on fire to help them seed. At the Preserve, they have prescribed fires every 3 to 5 years, if there are no natural ones. Some of the other animals use the gopher tortoise burrows for shelter during the fires, so the tortoises are quite beneficial to the environment. I had always thought that wildfires were bad, and I had never imagined that they could actually help the environment. A few days later, as we were driving up I-4 and I-95, we could see where some of the effects of the past wildfires, and we were able to notice how healthy the trees appeared, and how the undergrowth was thriving.

We also walked a bit on the shorter trail, following it to the lake shore. Along the way, we saw several deer tracks, as well as racoon tracks and what we think were bobcat tracks. We also kept seeing some odd looking markings in the sandy path, which when we were back in the car on the way out we realized were alligator tracks. Had we realized that while we were on the path, we may not have followed those markings quite as much. It would be quite startling, I'm sure, to run across an alligator - a little more than these adventurers bargained for.

Another view into the woods

I was quite fascinated by being able to walk through the trails. For some reason, the Florida wildlife and vegetation have always fascinated me, probably because they are so different from what we have back home. I feel that I learned quite a bit about nature from the interpretive trail, but I also enjoyed just walking through the other trails. I consider that part of nature to be quite beautiful, and it is often easy to miss the real Florida when you zoom in and out on vacation.

However, the Disney Wilderness Preserve may not be for everyone. I started to say that there aren't any thrills there, but I guess that depends on your definition of thrills. We were quite thrilled, for example, to see a wild turkey as we were leaving. So I guess I should change that to say there are no theme park type thrills. I know not everyone enjoys just getting out and walking through nature. But I found it quite relaxing, especially during the middle of a theme park vacation. And the crowds were easily manageable, because we were the crowd. Besides us, the only people there were the people who worked there.

The lakeshore along of the trails

A few notes, in case you plan to visit. You may want to call ahead and see if there are any tours if you are visiting on a weekend; some of the guided tours are by appointment only. Because many parts of the trails don't offer much in the way of shade, you might want to bring along some water to drink; they do have a Coke machine that also sells bottled water. We didn't take any water, but with all our farm work back home, we were already used to the heat, and it was several degrees cooler in Florida than it had been back home. We also left to go back to the hotel around 11:30, so if we had been there in the afternoon heat, it would have seemed hotter. Other things you may want to bring are a hat, sunscreen, a snack to eat, and insect repellant; the mosquitos are quite aggressive.

An example of the way most of Central Florida must have looked before theme parks came to the area

So if nature is your thing, be sure to drop by the Disney Wilderness Preserve the next time you are in central Florida. You'll have fun, and you might even learn something, just like we did.

For more information about the Disney Wilderness Preserve, visit their website at: http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/florida/preserves/art5523.html.

- Story and Photos by Steve Burns
Posted

Steve is a three-time Disney Store National Trivia finalist and webmaster of BurnsLand, home of Steve's Disney Railroad Adventures.

E-mail Steve at steve@startedbyamouse.com, discuss this article in the StartedByAMouse.com Disney Discussion Forums or use the Talkback feature below.

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