The entrance to the J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge Wildlife Drive on Sanibel Island — the addressable start, where a slow four-mile one-way route into a great mangrove wilderness begins.
Welcome to Sanibel Island, and to the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge — and welcome aboard. I'm Ranger Quinn, and I'll ride the Wildlife Drive with you, telling you what you're seeing and how to see the most of it. And riding along with me is Ranger Boone Merrick — he carries the tales, and you'll be hearing plenty from him along the way.
Now, this welcome plays for everyone who pulls in — so if you’ve actually come to WALK the Indigo Trail rather than drive it, here’s your one direction before we part ways. Your trail starts right here at the entrance: look just ahead and a little to your right, up by the Edith C. Stokes Administrative Building, beside the Visitor and Education Center, and you’ll find the trailhead where the shell path slips off into the refuge. Park, walk over, and your Indigo Trail tour will pick up the moment you reach it. Everyone else — stay with me here on the Wildlife Drive.
You're at the start of the Wildlife Drive, one of the finest wildlife-watching roads in all of America. So let me give you the ground rules first, because this is a special kind of road. It's four miles, it is strictly ONE-WAY, and the speed limit is fifteen miles an hour — and you'll want every bit of that slowness, because the whole point is to creep along, stop at the pull-offs, and look. Let faster folks go by; you're here to dawdle. A few practicals: there's a small entrance fee, usually around ten dollars a vehicle, and here's one that catches people out — the drive is CLOSED every Friday, to give the wildlife a day of peace, so make sure it's not a Friday. And you'll want to be off the drive by a half hour after sunset.
Now here's the single most important thing I can tell you, the secret that separates a great visit from a disappointing one: come at LOW TIDE. When the tide is out, it bares the mudflats, and all the fish and crabs and shrimp get trapped in the shallows — and that's when the wading birds pour in to feast, right up close to the road. High tide, and they scatter off into the mangroves where you can't see them. So if you can, check a tide chart and time this for low tide, early morning or toward evening. When you stop and shut the engine off, the tour pauses; tap play to pick it up. All set? Then ease on in, nice and slow, and let's go see who's out on the flats.
Photo: Russ · CC BY 2.0
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