Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge — Attraction in Delray Beach

I love to visit the Everglades but I don't often have the time to travel all the way down to Homestead. Fortunately for me the Loxahatchee Refuge is located a mere thirty minutes from where I live. It's located directly off of 441, about 20 minutes north of Glades Road directly behind Bedner farms which is a great place to grab a snack or drink before you go into the park.

Once you enter there a park service booth to the right. Admission is $5 but usually no one is present to collect the admission. A soon as you pass the booth turn to the right and there you will find the nature visitor center. There is some nice displays and a cute little movie where you sit in a fake air boat and the movie makes you feel like you are zipping through the Everglades. You will also find park rangers and volunteers here to answer any questions you have. The visitor center closes at 4 pm. Right behind the nature center are the bathrooms and the entrance to the Cypress trail which goes through the cypress swamp. The trail is a quick little ten minute walk on an elevated boardwalk. Very pretty. The trail winds around back to the start and when the nature center is open there are some rocking chairs on the back patio to enjoy.

Once you finish the nature center you hop back into the car and drive up to the next parking lot on the left. If it is July it is worth looking into the water on your left side. It's a popular place for alligators to nest and I have seen mom's and babies many times. You just want to give them a wide berth. Once you park you will see a trail to your left that makes a nice circle around the wet prairie habitat ending back at the parking lot. It's an easy twenty minute walk but there is no shade so I like it best in the winter. As you walk you will see many birds. Some that I see often are Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, and Great Egrets. I have also seen alligators and turtles swimming along. There is a small observation platform which gives a nice view of the wet prairie.

A short drive up the road leads to another parking lot on the left where there a covered pavilion that abuts the slough. If you peer over the railing there is usually an alligator or two lounging around. This area provides a beautiful view of the wet prairie. The last time I was there I saw a family feeding the alligators grapes. This was despite a large sign that says do not feed the alligators. The sign also showed a dead alligator that the park rangers had to kill because it had become a nuisance gator from people feeding it. Let's leave the wildlife wild folks.

At the very back of the refuge is the slough habitat. A lot of people bring their boats back here and it's a popular place to fish. There is place here that rents canoes and kayak and you can take the five mile canoe trail that runs through here. I did it once and took several hours. There was no shade which can be brutal. They lily pads also make it difficult to get through the water. The wildlife however was amazing and it made it worthwhile. I saw alligators swimming right next to my canoe as well as many kinds of birds. The canoe place also offers moonlight canoe trips which I have always wanted to take.

In February of every years the friends of Arthur R Marshall Refuge have an Everglades Day. A ton of people come so you have to park offsite and ride a bus. The event has free canoeing, guided nature walks, arts and crafts for the kids, vendors, and food trucks just to name a few things. Last year my friends bought some very nice binoculars which I am seriously thinking of purchasing this year. Although crowded it is a really fun day.

The Everglades is a very important part of the Florida ecosystem. Some changes are being proposed that may threaten the future of the refuge. I wrote this review because I hope more people will come visit and love it as much as I do. If you love it like me, then you will be invested in...

It's a great place for a walk, run, bike ride or to see birds and other animals. I think of it as having four parts to the park; the Nature Center, Boardwalk, Trails (walking, running, biking), Boating (power, canoe, kayak) trails. I've been to Loxahatchee dozens of times over the years. I’ve walked all of the trails and have gone both north and south over 4 miles each direction from the boat ramp. There is also a covered tower to view the wildlife with those big metal park binoculars on a stand. A couple of benches are around the paths.

The boardwalk behind the nature center is .3 miles long and winds its way through the marsh. I’ve seen lots of different birds while walking the boardwalk. Since covid the boardwalk is for counter clockwise walking to keep people more separated but lots of people ignore the signage and go clockwise. Bathrooms are located at the start of the loop and there is a large deck with benches and a roof over part of it to sit and enjoy nature.

Loxahatchee is one of my favorite places to run. Lots of paths of different lengths to walk or run. Trail runners are the best to wear here. It’s easy to figure out a path of any length to walk/run. The two downsides for walking/running is that there isn't any shade and sometimes you come across an alligator laying across the trail and you have to turn around. Almost every time my wife and I run at Loxahatchee we see an Alligator in the water which is fun. Seeing one on the path is a bit less fun. We have also seen a few large snakes on the trails. A few times I didn’t see the snake until it moved.

The Nature Center was closed for a couple of years during Covid. At one point all the beaches in both town and state parks were closed but you could still visit Loxahatchee and it never got busy there. We only stop in the Nature Center once in a while but it’s a great place to learn about Loxahatchee and the Everglades. There is a gift shop there and it’s where you buy a season pass.

During Covid the park was free but now that the Nature Center is open you have to pay. It’s $10 a day for a car or $25 for the annual pass. For us the annual pass is a great deal.

I’m a kayaker but have never kayaked there. I’m sure it would be an interesting place to paddle. You can rent canoes and kayaks by the boat ramp. If you bring your own you need to have a pole with an orange flag on it so power boats will see you and not hit you when going around one of the many turns. There are marked canoe paths to paddle along.

We have gone to the park with my mother who will walk around the boardwalk or sit in the shelter at the start of the boardwalk while my wife and I take a run. We often bring lunch to have with my mother after our run. She enjoys reading a book and watching people walking the boardwalk. There is something for everyone at this park. I’ll be back many more times.

And as a bonus Bedner’s Farm Market is at the turn off of 441 into the park. It is a great place to shop for the freshest fruits and vegetables...

A great scenic nature walk for families, bird watchers, nature photographers, anglers, or anyone wanting to enjoy what Florida has to offer. Before visiting, you will wan to make sure you have cash on hand to pay the park entrance, as well as a pen so you can write down your info on the pay slip. The entrance fee is on the honor system and you deposit your cash in an envelope into a receptacle at the gate. They also don't provide pens or pencils to write your info. The marsh trail is a gorgeous walking trail. The park does offer some guided tours on a golf cart, but its best done by foot. There's tons of wildlife to be seen. There are small canals that run along the trail, and I've caught a lot of bass in them at times. There WILL be alligators in the small canals right next to the trail. They don't bother you at all unless you catch a fish. Then they come looking for an easy meal (your fish, not you). Be prepared to come relatively close to the gators, but as long as you observe and don't do anything foolish, they just sit like statues. The boat ramp can get crowded on the weekends. Week days are usually pretty tame. Lots of pleasure craft flock to the water on the weekends, so if you plan on fishing, keep in mind you will cross paths with boaters that are not up to speed on proper boating etiquette when passing another boat who's fishing. The levee is great for riding bikes. You can go farrrrrrrrrr. You can go from Boca Raton, all the way to West Palm Beach on the levee, so plan accordingly. There are other trails that run north from the main entrance road. These are also good too for hiking and mountain biking. The horse flies can get quite bad at certain times of year, and they seem to be impervious to bug repellant. If you keep moving its not so bad. There are farms and a lot of private land surrounding the area, so its not uncommon to hear the landowners partaking in some target practice with firearms. Don't be alarmed. The woods between the trail and their land provides a huge backstop. You'd have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning twice than an incident with pass through occurring. I can't comment on the restroom situation as nature's never called during my visits, but don't expect there to be many amenities. There's a kayak rental business near the boat ramp as well. The kayak trail is quite long. If you're not experienced it can take a long time to complete the trail. If you do plan on tackling the trail, get there early, pack some drinks and lunch, and you'll do fine. The difficult part about the kayak trail are the lily pads. They create a lot of friction on the kayak and require some effort to paddle through. There can be long sections covered in pads. Otherwise its a great paddle in some gorgeous scenery. Overall this is one of my top nature trails/parks in Palm Beach...