FLORIDA · BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE · INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY PARK
The Park Service calls Big Cypress the back yard of millions of South Florida residents and visitors, and that phrase carries more information than any brochure line. It describes a place people use in pieces: an afternoon on a trail, a night under the stars, a weekend with a buggy. That is a different proposition from a park you buy a plane ticket for.
The preserve covers 574,453.32 acres, with a further 146,110.69-acre Addition, some 720,000 acres in all, against the 1.4 million of Everglades National Park beside it. There is no entrance fee. And since 2016 it has been designated an International Dark Sky Park, a status awarded on how dark the sky over it measures.
THE PRESERVE AT A GLANCE · BIG CYPRESS
No entrance fee, some 720,000 acres including the Addition, and a night sky certified in 2016: plan to still be inside the preserve after sunset.
NO ENTRANCE FEE · $100 ANNUAL ORV PERMIT · DARK SKY PARK SINCE 2016
Go for: a night sky certified in 2016, swamp buggy and canoe country, and federal land you can walk into without paying a gate.
Think twice before: driving preserve trails in your own vehicle without the $100 annual off-road vehicle permit, displayed after inspection.
National Park Service · nps.gov/bicy · NPS Acreage Report, June 30, 2026 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Things to do at Big CypressBuggy, airboat, canoe, kayak or on foot
- Stargazing in the preserveDark Sky Park since 2016
- Big Cypress entrance feeNo entrance fee, and the $100 ORV permit
- Big Cypress vs the Everglades720,000 acres against 1.4 million
- The Everglades itselfOur Everglades guide
- Every federal park unit in FloridaFlorida’s national parks
Hours at Big Cypress vary by season and by site within the preserve, and the permitted commercial operators set their own prices. We verified none of them, so nothing here quotes an opening time, a closure date or a tour rate. Check the preserve’s own page at nps.gov/bicy for the day you plan to go.
What is there to do at Big Cypress National Preserve?
You can go in on your own or with a permitted commercial operator, and that choice shapes the day more than the season does. The Park Service lists swamp buggy, airboat, canoe, kayak, flat boat, hiking and driving tours among the services those operators provide, which covers both ends of the preserve: the interior a buggy reaches, and the water a paddle reaches.
Going in on your own puts the logistics on you. Driving preserve trails in your own vehicle requires the annual off-road vehicle permit, $100 per vehicle, displayed on the vehicle once it has passed inspection. Walking and paddling carry no permit of that kind. The 146,110.69-acre Addition is part of the same preserve rather than a separate destination with its own paperwork.
Can you see the stars at Big Cypress?
Big Cypress was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2016. That is the practical argument for staying put after sunset instead of driving back toward Miami: the preserve is dark enough to have been certified for it, on land measured by the people who hand out the designation.
The certification says nothing about where you should stand. We verified no night access rule, no gate time and no designated viewing site, so ask at the preserve before you build an evening around one pullout. Check the moon phase too, because a full moon washes out a certified sky the same way it washes out an ordinary one.
The back-yard framing, which is the Park Service’s own, matters most after dark. Nobody needs a flight to use a certified sky that sits inside a South Florida evening, and the entrance costs nothing. Bring a red light and give your eyes time to adjust before you judge what the sky is doing.
Is Big Cypress National Preserve free?
| What you pay | Amount | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance | $0 | No entrance fee is charged at Big Cypress National Preserve |
| Off-road vehicle permit | $100 per vehicle, annual | Driving preserve trails. Displayed on the vehicle, which must be inspected |
| Permitted commercial tour | Set by the operator | Swamp buggy, airboat, canoe, kayak, flat boat, hiking or driving tours. We verified no price |
The $100 is not an entrance fee wearing a different hat. It is an annual off-road vehicle permit, priced per vehicle, and it only applies if you intend to drive preserve trails with a machine of your own that has passed inspection. Walk in, paddle in, or ride with a permitted operator, and the preserve itself takes nothing from you. What the operator takes is between the two of you.
Is Big Cypress worth visiting if you have seen the Everglades?
Sources & data for this guide
- Acreage: 574,453.32 acres plus the 146,110.69-acre Addition, and Everglades National Park at 1.4 million · National Park Service, NPS Acreage Report of June 30, 2026 · checked Sep 13, 2026
- International Dark Sky Park designation (2016), the back-yard description and the list of operator services · National Park Service, Big Cypress (Things To Do) · checked Sep 13, 2026
- No entrance fee and the $100 annual off-road vehicle permit, displayed on the inspected vehicle · National Park Service, Big Cypress Fees & Passes · checked Sep 13, 2026
- Editorial admission: we verified no opening hour, no closure date and no commercial tour price. Hours vary by season and by site within the preserve, operators set their own rates · check nps.gov/bicy for your date.
Everglades National Park holds 1.4 million acres beside it. Big Cypress holds 574,453.32, plus the 146,110.69-acre Addition, for something near 720,000 in all. Half the size, and a different category of federal land: a preserve, where the Park Service lists swamp buggy and off-road vehicle use among the ways people move through it.
If you have already done the Everglades, you have done the boardwalk hours. Our Everglades guide handles the dry-season wildlife and the two loops worth the drive. What Big Cypress adds is a sky certified in 2016 and a wider menu of ways in: canoe, kayak, flat boat, airboat, buggy, boots, or a vehicle carrying the $100 permit.
The other difference is repetition. A back yard gets used in fragments by the people who live nearby, a paddle one week and a night sky the next, and a visitor with a single Florida week rarely has that luxury. That argues for going in with a permitted operator the first time and letting them pick the route, then coming back on your own once you know which half of the preserve you liked.
The last word. Big Cypress charges you nothing to come in and stages nothing for you once you are there. Settle your way in first, a canoe, a hiking route, an operator’s buggy, or your own vehicle with the annual $100 permit displayed after inspection. Then check nps.gov/bicy for hours on your date, since we verified none. And stay late: the 2016 designation is the reason to still be inside the preserve at that hour.