Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

My sister has been coming to Sanibel annually for as long as I can remember, and she visits Ding Darling many time per trip. She’s serious about it – go at dawn or dusk, drive but get out of the car many times along the way, take several passes through. So, I took her advice and went. I did see a crocodile, but that’s rare, so I don’t get the appeal, and I’m a fan of nature and wildlife. There are crazy bugs in that place, and you leave bitten to a pulp, itching for days, to see — wait for it – A BIRD! A CRAB! Maybe — but probably not — a manatee. There’s more wildlife in my backyard at home.

Such a great place to visit. Did the tour on our own and enjoyed the freedom of stopping and starting on our own. Saw alligators, snakes, hundreds of birds and fish. Beautiful place to take in. Take your time and give yourself at least 2 – 3 hours to take it in. Could easily stay longer though.

I enjoyed this excursion for the most part. You have to either want to come here or resign yourself that you ARE coming here whether you’d prefer to or not, and I was the latter, and while I may or may not have sought this out on my own, we did see an abundance of wildlife (including tree crabs and alligators) and for that I appreciate being dragged here. «Ding» Darling was a political cartoonist who wintered in Sanibel and became an avid conservationist having seen the wildlife being displaced during the building boom in Florida. He worked under FDR for a time. In 1945, he convinced President Truman to create the Sanibel a Wildlife Refuge, which was then renamed in 1967 following Darling’s death. In the refuge, you will find over 6400 acres of mangroves (mostly red– yes, I paid attention on the tour!) and 245 species of birds. In the mangroves, there are many roosting and nesting areas for migratory birds, manatees, and sharks.
The visiting center is a good place to start. It’s open 9 – 5 during the peak season (January– April). There is a 17 minute video that provides an overview of the refuge and you can also see the submissions for the Floridawide duck stamp contest on display. It’s pretty unreal that the artists are in high school or middle school. There is a gift shop here too.
There are many ways to explore Wildlife Drive the four mile trail through the refuge. You can drive ($ 5 a car), hike ($ 1 per person), bike (also $ 1 per person), or take the tram with the docent to provide a great narrative experience (I recommend this– it wasn’t more than $ 8 per person I believe). You can also rent kayaks and kayak the waterways. You better know your way though because there is no help! You can also fish here but you need a saltwater permit.
Each visit is a different experience as, obviously, animals are unpredictable. We witnessed lots of Pelicans, white ibis, egrets, flamingo-​like birds, jumping fish (mullets or Mullins– no one in my party could agree on an actual name), and several gators popped up along our visit too. The tree crabs were a pretty cool sight to see as well that we would have never known about if we hadn’t done the tram tour.
My dad has Been here several times and enjoys it each time, I believe the rest of my family is probably ok with the «one and done» train of thought. I don’t disagree with that thought, but I honk if it’s your first time in Sanibel, particularly if you’re here before migration, you should visit the refuge. When you see the building spree still ongoing in many places, it’s nice to have a serene place such as Ding Darling to remind you that it’s good to get way from the hustle and bustle at times and just sit back and relax and enjoy the natural world.

Loved this place! We did the $ 1 walking tour of the refuge and was able to see a lot of wildlife. We started off at the Indigo Trail, went to the Observation tower and walked back to the entrance on the road. We saw an alligator, 2 otters who crossed right in front of us, a mangrove snake, mangrove crabs, and of course TONS of birds and water fowl! Definitely worth your money. $ 5 for vehicles, $ 1 for walking, or you can take a guided tram.

The visitors center is incredible and the people who work or volunteer here are very knowledgeable and friendly. They have learning centers for all ages and a nice bird viewing area with binoculars where we actually saw an osprey.
The price is serendipitous at $ 5 a car, or $ 1, which we paid to hike through the preserve.
This was a beautiful and peaceful walk through the dense woods and we saw several different types of wildlife. There were lots of unique tropical birds, an alligator, otters, snakes, and these strange crabs that live on trees. There is a great place at the end to watch the sunset and the birds. Photographers dreamland.

We were here on a sunny Tuesday, Jan. 26 (the only nice weather day of our whole week in Florida) so maybe this was an exceptional day, but we saw lots of white pelicans, some smaller black birds, and 3 alligators. We did not see the Roseate Spoonbill. This was a beautiful place, well worth the $ 5 /​car fee to enter. We were able to pull our car over where ever we wanted to take photos or walk around. We were surprised to see that fishing was allowed. This was a busy place, and popular with bike riders too.

Awesome time on the tram, so happy wet did this over a self guided tour as the driver knew all the specifics on the birds we saw. Would return someday in different weather and or different tide water.

I have some good news, and some bad news. Let’s start with the good news, since it’s a new year and all — I did get to see some wildlife, including wading birds. The bad news — I did not see a single Roseate Spoonbill, which was my whole motivation in persuading my friend to drive 45 minutes out of the way from Fort Myers, which was our actual destination. I did, however, get pictures of other birds, for what it’s worth.
In case you didn’t know, this is supposed to be Spoonbill heaven, at least that’s how Wikipedia describes it. Since this is an otherwise very elusive bird, you can probably understand my excitement in coming here. It had been building up all week, the way a child would be excited when being told that on the weekend, she would get to go to Disney. I would finally get some stellar pictures, I thought. I guess unless you’re a lover of nature, wildlife, and photography, you would not understand and you would think I am out of my gourd.
My friend and I arrived, parked… and found the visitor’s center closed. I guess that should have indicated to us that things would not be as simple as we thought and that it would not get any better. It was New Year’s Day, and I guess they decided to close and give the employees the day off. Because of this, we were unable to get any guide maps telling us where to look for Spoonbills, nor was there anyone to ask. We were on our own. I figured since this is a hotspot for these birds, we’d have no trouble finding them, map or no map and they’d be flying freely, everywhere.
There were a few transportation options: bicycles (the rentals were closed), kayaks (again, closed), a tram (closed), a few paths to drive on (all of them closed, to our surprise), and the only thing open that day was the hiking trail. Since this was our only option, we took it. It started off slowly, with not much to see, until we arrived to an observatory area full of Ibises, which you can say would be the highlight of the approximately 2 hour hike. From then on, though, we just walked on and on, on the Indigo Trail.
Though we did not know it at the time, we walked four miles (2 miles each way). While I enjoy walking and feel I could afford to exercise and then some, it is a true disappointment when after that long walk, you don’t find your coveted happy ending. Other than an alligator at the end of the trail, there was no sign of the Roseate Spoonbills. To make matters worse, there were sand flies all along the way while we hiked, biting me and my friend. We persevered through it all, thinking we would find these birds and it all would have been worth it. We ended up leaving full of bites and frustrated, though.
I am hoping to come back only because I will not rest until I have some pictures of the Roseate Spoonbill. When I set my mind to something, there is no deviating me from it. I do think that they could better advertise on their website any change in their regular schedule. It is only visible after clicking on several tabs to get to a «plan your visit» and «hours» section, rather than on their main homepage.
Another thing they could do is to have maps for people to grab and take along with them. Not everyone wants to spend their time making a line at the visitor’s center to pick up a map, and on days they are closed, like last Friday, it would be greatly beneficial to just grab one and go. A circled area on the map or just a noted area above the maps indicating popular Roseate Spoonbill sighting locations would also come in handy. After driving about 3 hours to see these birds, you can hopefully understand my frustration in not finding them and having to make yet another trip out here. Better luck next time, hopefully. It can’t get any worse, I guess?

Definitely worth going while on the island! It is only $ 5 for the day and you can drive through as many times as you would like. The staff at the visitors center were very friendly and helpful in pointing out places to visit on the island. We drove through the refuge and saw pink duck billed birds, two alligators, an otter, and so many other things. Take your time and walking shoes or better yet ride your bikes.

We did the Tarpon Bay Explorers Tram Tour of the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel. It was fantastic! Our naturalist was Heather, and she told us this is the first job in which she got to use her biology degree — and she is really into nature — in a big way. We stopped at every interesting wildlife sighting and got a full explanation of them. Heather puts some excitement into the tour. We thoroughly enjoyed it. BTW, this is about our 10’th or 12’th visit to Sanibel, and maybe the fourth time or so for the tram tour. Sometimes we just do the drive ourselves, but we like to take the tram tour every few years.
LOOK! … GATOR On the left!!!

Great place… if you can stand the heat. Try getting there early for the hikes and any water activities.
We attempted the long hike and folded about a third of the way. Too hot and really no cover. Trees all around… just wish we did that a little early so we didn’t melt.
The Kayaking trip was awesome… be at ease, the entire area is like 3−4ft deep. Newbie… not a problem, kayaking is a pretty easy skill to learn. We did the guided tour. The team here is extremely knowledgeable and professional. For an extra $ 5, you get a tour guide and you don’t do loops around the mangroves. Oh and if you are thinking this… i sure was… there are no Gators in the brackish waters.
Great place to fish… if you are into that. The fish jumping out of the water were pretty big. Again, pick a reasonably early or later time, so you don’t melt.

We kayaked Tarpon Bay up into the wetland area. Although we met many other people kayaking, everyone was respectful of each other, so the day was a peaceful and quiet one. My most memorable moment was discovering a large group of starfish scattered in the clear water just off the «trail,» where the water was so shallow we could have easily picked them up. I felt quite privileged that we found them. We told one other couple about the starfish, who seemed responsible and respectful of nature. We also asked about the starfish back at the nature center. Of course the staff knew about them. That’s as far as we got because there were so many people there at that time, turning in kayaks and taking them out.
The kayak rental fees are a bit steep compared to rentals outside of a park, but hey, the money goes toward supporting our wonderful National Wildlife Refuge System in some way — at least I hope so, even if the funds pay employee salaries. Every employee that we talked to was helpful, almost to a fault!
Go. Enjoy. This place belongs to you.

My husband and I took the 1.5 hr Tram Tour with our guide, Lewis. It was so interesting and educational. Lewis was extremely knowledgable about Florida history and ecology. We saw many different birds within the refuge and also other wild life! If you decide to go on the tour make sure you stop by the education center for binoculars, you just have to leave a credit card as collateral, they are free.

We have three teens… this would be good for smaller kids. My teens know about animals and would have liked to have seen actual animals not a tour guide talking about the animals he/​she has seen before.
Paid $ 60 for 5 of us to take the tour bus. Saw 5 birds and 6 000 000 mangrove trees, 70 000 crabs and no other animals.
My suggestion… pay $ 5 and drive the path yourself. Unless you want to listen to «Blah, blah, blah … Mangrove, blah, blah, blah… if we did see an animal it would… blah, blah, blah… high tide, low tide, high tide»

If you are venturing to Sanibel, definitely check out JN Ding Darling Wildlife– with the kids or sans.
Coming here, you see all types of wildlife, beautiful birds and mammals just to name a few. Staff here are very knowledgable and will explain detail after detail of the different habitat.
Again, great place for the entire family to enjoy.

For the bargain price of $ 5, an entire carload of people can wander through the free visitors center to learn about Ding Darling and his preservation efforts, crocodiles vs. alligators, and birds, birds, birds before heading out on the 4+ mile road through the preserve. Pick-​up a map and a bird identification sheet from the information desk to make your drive more meaningful. Then get ready to stop along the road to marvel at all sorts of birds (pelicans, spoonbills, osprey, and herons galore), flora and other fauna. We somehow missed any alligators, river otters, or snakes on our drive, but I know that they are a frequent sighting. Ding Darling is a fun, educational stop during your Sanibel visit!

How can you not love a place with a name like «Ding Darling?» Although I’m not sure I would use «darling,» but this is definitely an awesome natural preserve. There is a single, one-​way road that circumnavigates the preserve. There are also several short walking trails, or you can rent bikes at one of the many locations in the area. You can pull off the road anywhere for closer exploration and photos. There is a self tour to which you can listen as you go. It tells you the highlights of the specific area for each stop.
Naturally, there is lots of water and wildlife, particularly birds. Our favorite was a roseate spoonbill, standing out among the herons and other waders. There were kingfishers, grebes, pelicans and all sorts of other birds, scattered everywhere.
As at the lighthouse, the beach is composed of broken shells, rather than the sand we see on the beaches here in Ft. Lauderdale. If you’re lucky, you can find some really cool shells, from sand dollars to conchs. The shelling was better here than it was at the lighthouse.
No matter where you go, there is plenty of opportunity to explore the beauty of FL, close up.

Eh… I was not definitely not overly impressed. We did the park by car. We truly did not see much of interest. I did like the Q code «self» tour but even that was not fabulous. We went on a day with decent weather. It was not overly crowded but there were people around. There are definitely some pretty things to see but I am not sure I would pay to drive through this again. I can see how it could definitely be boring for children. Maybe we were just unlucky?

Ding Darling is a must visit if you’re visiting Sanibel. We visited a few times during our trip and each time brought a variety of wildlife.
TIP: Go to the visitor’s center before visiting. Get a tide chart for Tarpon Bay and WIldlife Drive. Don’t go on Wildlife Drive until LOW TIDE. This is when you will see the most birds fishing. The tide chart is free. They also have a brochure with all the typical birds so you can identify them.
It’s only $ 5 (cash only) for a drive through. You can go more than once. It’s $ 1 to bike or walk. There are a lot of bikers who come through.
While there, we saw tons of herons, ibis, roseate spoonbills, pelicans, and more. We saw gators, manatee and a snake as well.
In addition to driving through, we took the tram tour and the evening wildlife boat tour through Tarpon Bay Explorers, which I will review separately but I completely recommend, especially as a good introduction to the refuge.

It was a rainy and cloudy day. But out of desperation, I had to get the kids out of the house, so we decided to try out the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We were all tickled pink with what we discovered.
I decided to stop by the visitors building, not really expecting anything. Boy was I wrong! There were tons of hands on activities to keep my 5 and 7 year olds busy. From rubbing crayons over paper to get fossil rubs, to seeing an alligator skeleton to watching nature videos, we spent more than an hour just inside.
We didn’t spot any alligators outside along the refuge, but we saw a gazillion birds. Lots of folks were out taking pictures (with crazy huge cameras so you know they’re serious birders) to a couple of families riding bikes through the preserve. I had a feeling if it had been a sunny day, we would have seen lots more people walking and biking through.
We all earned a ton about the local animals and a better appreciation for the area. If you are anywhere near Ding Darling, you owe yourself a trip out here.

Der kleine Park mit dem ein wenig komischen Namen «Ding Darling» ist ein herrlicher Ort. Aber nur wenn man sich auch die Zeit dazu nimmt.
Auf Sanibel Island erstreckt sich der Park über einen Grossteil der östlichen Küste der Insel. Der Park beinhaltet sowohl Wasser wie auch Land.
Auf dem ländlichen Teil kann man eine 4 Meilen lange Route mit dem Auto, zu Fuss oder dem Fahrrad zurücklegen. Der Zutritt kostet $ 5. Unterwegs hat man viele Möglichkeiten, die Route zu verlassen — allerdings nur zu Fuss oder per Kaya. Es stehen sehr viele Routen für Wandern und Kayaken zur Verfügung. Man muss sich aber bewusst sein, dass dies ein sehr kleiner Park ist. Dimensionen wie im Yosemite oder den Everglades darf man also keines falls erwarten.
Aber auch für diejenigen, die nur mit dem Auto durchfahren gibt es ein paar Möglichkeiten, das Auto zu verlassen. Unterwegs gibt es Aussichtspunkte, Holzstege die ins Wasser hinaus führen und man dadurch die schöné Mangroven Landschaft bewundern kann.
In der Brochure habe ich gesehen, dass es auch ein «Tram» gibt (eins auf Rädern, nicht auf Gleisen). Für dieses gibt es ein paar Haltestellen unterwegs. Man kann es also auch ohne Auto oder zu viel Wandern durch den Park schaffen.
Im Park leben natürlich auch Tiere. Man findet eine Vielzahl an Vögeln aber auch Alligatoren sind anzutreffen.