J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Ding Darling: Sanibel's Wildlife Drive

27 stops· 50 min· 6.4 mi

One of the great birding drives in America — the four-mile Wildlife Drive through the J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, where the tide pulls back to bare the mudflats and the wading birds come in by the hundreds: roseate spoonbills like flying sunsets, reddish egrets dancing for fish, white pelicans, wood storks, herons and egrets of every kind. Ranger Quinn drives you slowly through the mangrove estuary, tells you what you're looking at and the one trick that makes or breaks the trip — the tide — and points out the alligators, the mangroves, and the birds along the way. Ranger Boone Merrick rides along with the tales: the newspaper cartoonist named Ding Darling who drew a duck, invented a stamp, and quietly saved this island and helped build the whole national refuge system; the Calusa shell kings who ruled this coast without ever planting a crop, and turned back a Spanish conquistador; the shell-hunter's stoop and the one rule that can cost you five hundred dollars; and how the island came back after Hurricane Ian. A slow, gentle, one-way drive — best at LOW TIDE, in the cool months, closed Fridays. Bring binoculars, patience, and a full memory card.