Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive Orlando Florida

When we go to Florida, every few years, we always like to find something new to do and experience. As much as we love the theme parks and being immersed in the world of Disney, it’s lovely to do something different and get away from that Disney bubble for a while. This summer, we wanted to do the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.

What is the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive?

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive gives you a chance to see and photograph a large variety of birds and wildlife from the comfort of your car. The drive takes you around the North Shore of Lake Apopka and takes around two hours depending on how often you stop to look at the wildlife!

What is Lake Apopka?

Lake Apopka is 15 miles northwest of Orlando and is the fourth largest lake in Florida. Back in the 1940’s, Lake Apopka was one of Central Florida’s main attractions as it had 21 fish camps lining the shoreline, allowing anglers to fish for trophy-sized bass.

However, over the following years, the lake was reduced in size, creating valuable farm land which ultimately destroyed the conditions of the lake. By the 1990s the lake wasn’t fit to sustain life and a big restoration process followed. This turned the farmland back into marshland and, following a huge cleanup mission, allowed wildlife to once again thrive.

The work is still ongoing but the Lake Apopka trails have now been open for over a decade, allowing people like us to get up close to wildlife and enjoy the great outdoors too.

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive

We drove to Lake Apopka one morning, after grabbing cold drinks and snacks on the way. It was well signposted and easy to find, with a big sign at the start to let you know you were on the right track.

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive has an audio tour that you can download onto your phone and listen to during the drive. This tells you all about the history of Lake Apopka, the wildlife that you’ll see during the drive and any other points of interest. There are eleven different audio segments to listen to during the drive, and all are signposted along the route to tell you when to press play.

As we started driving along the route, we realised how vast the Lake Apopka area is. It’s so flat and you can see so much in all directions. Plus, it’s so quiet. You can’t hear anything aside from the birds and the hum of your car. We spent the whole drive completely focused on spotting birds and other wildlife.

The drive has a maximum speed limit of 10 miles per hour and there are plenty of spaces to pull over and take your time watching wildlife and just enjoying how lovely and quiet it is. You’re even able to get out of your car – just watch out for gators!

We saw so many herons, pelicans and other kinds of birds that we’d never seen before. A vague bird knowledge would be good if you’re going on the drive. Even though we didn’t know what the birds were we absolutely loved seeing them – especially as so many looked like they were sunbathing – with their wings spread out, just catching the rays.

After the first half an hour or so, where we felt like we would see nothing but birds, we started to spot alligators too. This was so exciting for us! It started with a baby alligator at a viewpoint where we got out to have a look – and it looked super cute despite being a natural predator.

After that we saw alligators constantly. They were often just laying in the water, with just their eyes and nostrils poking out above the water. But at other times they’d be gliding along in the water, swimming happily from place to place.

We loved taking our time on the trail, stopping to let other cars pass, keeping our eyes peeled for alligators and taking photos along the way too. We saw so many lovely birds, birds of prey, a rabbit and at least a dozen alligators. It was such a lovely morning.

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive isn’t for everyone. It’s slow and does take a couple of hours, but it’s also a really nice change of pace from the theme parks and other tourist attractions. It’s lovely to see the real Florida and get up close to nature too. We are so glad we did it.

The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive is open 7am to 3pm, Friday to Sunday and you can see the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive map here. You can find out more about the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive over on their website and for reference, the starting point is 2850 Lust Rd, Apopka, FL 32703