Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Gainesville, FL

We love wildlife of all kinds! Some of the most fascinating creatures can be found at Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainesville, Florida. 🦅

We have been to this beautiful nature preserve a few different times. Each time we seem to find new things to enjoy. There are easily accessible paths and boardwalks to follow with benches placed conveniently on the paths for either a bit of a rest or to sit and enjoy the scenery. 🌳

Each time we go, we head straight for the covered deck to see what is in the water. 🐊 It rarely fails that we find an alligator or two swimming around or sunning themselves. We found one this time, too! We also found an anhinga directly below us. Hmmm, I wonder if it was hiding from the alligator. 🤔😉

Taking the path to get a closer look, we found not one, but two gators taking a sun bath. Unbothered by their carnivorous neighbors, the beautiful swallowtails fluttered nearby. 🦋

Continuing along the path, we found multiple types of birds in the trees and wading in the shallow marshes. Purple gallinules, egrets, ibis, and herons are frequently seen in the park. We loved watching the anhingas spread their wings. 🥰

Some beautiful wildflowers that we saw are blue toadflax, creeping woodsorrel, southern dewberry, and red buckeye. 💐

Continuing through the park we saw more alligators, and a few different kinds of turtles including soft-shelled, painted turtles, and a redbelly cooter. I loved watching this soft-shelled turtle swim around! 🐢

Along the boardwalk we found a rabbit right next to a few snakes! They were hard to see at first, but when Joe spotted the snakes and Juliana spotted the rabbit and pointed them out, we thought it it was awesome! 🐍 We also found an osprey nest high above us on a pole. 🪹

Sweetwater Wetlands Park is an educational and enjoyable place to visit. Whether you’re there to research different species of animals or plants, or just taking a leisurely walk, we would highly recommend it. We hope you love it as much as we do! 😊

We hope you are enjoying our travels! We’d love to welcome you to subscribe to our free email list, Facebook page, & YouTube channel. You can also share it with your friends, if you’d like. We added some videos on our YouTube channel to go along with the post: https://www.youtube.com/@TravelingwiththeTrapps

Thanks so much and stay tuned for more Traveling with the Trapps!

Share this: