PARKS & OUTDOORS
Tibet-Butler Preserve
Orange County · Central Florida
A 440-acre county preserve on Lake Butler southwest of Orlando, with 3.6 miles of trail and a nature center, free to enter.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The preserve covers 440 acres on the shore of Lake Butler at 8777 Winter Garden Vineland Road, a few minutes from the Walt Disney World gates and a world away from them. Orange County Parks and Recreation runs it, and it opens daily from eight in the morning until six. Trails occasionally close after heavy rain floods them. About 3.6 miles of trail and boardwalk cross five habitats in a short distance: bay swamp, marsh, cypress swamp, pine flatwoods and scrub, which is an unusual range to find on one walk. The Vera Carter Environmental Center holds live animals, mounted specimens and displays explaining what is outside the door. There is a butterfly garden, picnic ground and a wheelchair-accessible sandbox. More than a hundred bird species have been recorded, among them bald eagles, osprey and screech owls, and gopher tortoises, river otters, armadillos and alligators all live here. The preserve is a site on the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail
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