Picnic area · Everglades National Park
A short mangrove boardwalk beside a picnic spot and boat launch.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Everglades Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Everglades National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Everglades audio tourRecorded for this place
West Lake: Mangroves and a Picnic Break“You're coming up on West Lake, a quiet place to break the drive with a picnic and a short walk through mangroves.”
Plays as you drive up to West Lake in the Parkwolf Everglades Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
West Lake is a roadside picnic and boat-access area about seven miles north of Flamingo. It makes an easy break from the drive: eat by the water, walk the adjoining boardwalk, or put in a small boat. Think of it as a quiet, low-effort stop rather than a big hike.
The West Lake Trail is a half-mile round trip on a boardwalk from the roadside trailhead to the water's edge. It's marked wheelchair accessible, and bikes aren't allowed. The route threads through mangroves, then opens onto a view across the lake.
A covered picnic pavilion and tables, parking, restrooms, a dock and a small-boat launch sit together here. Bring food for the picnic; there isn't food service at the stop. Boats with engines of 6 horsepower or less may use West Lake, but can't continue beyond it.
The boardwalk passes white, black and red mangroves, along with buttonwood. Biting insects can be a nuisance, and still stretches may smell swampy, so bring repellent if that tends to spoil a walk for you.
Wildlife
15 sightingsMountain LionMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
1,429 sightingsWest Indian ManateeMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
4,397 sightingsAlligatorMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
1,672 sightingsCrocodileMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
42 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
15 sightingsBobcatMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Everglades. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyWest Lake Trail0.5 mi · 20 min · At the trailheadFollow a level boardwalk through mangroves to West Lake.
EasySnake Bight Trail3.7 mi · 2 hr · 1.8 mi awayFlat hammock walk to a small Florida Bay birding platform.
EasyRowdy Bend Trail5.2 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.4 mi awayA long, flat birding walk through buttonwoods and coastal prairie.Parkwolf’s Everglades ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
