Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, State park in Florida, United States.

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park protects a 6 km wide strand of royal palm, bald cypress, ferns and orchids within the Big Cypress Swamp. The photograph shows fibrous brown bark strips and climbing vines on a large trunk, tall slender trunks, and green ferns over fallen leaves. The park covers about 125 square miles from Alligator Alley south to the Ten Thousand Islands.

Cypress trees were harvested from this area between 1944 and 1954, resulting in the creation of tram roads used by logging operations. These old routes were later converted and now serve as hiking trails for visitors to use.

The swamp's ghost orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii, drew Susan Orlean to write The Orchid Thief, published in 1998, after the case of plant collector John Laroche. Charlie Kaufman adapted the book into the film Adaptation, and the swamp also appears in an episode of The Finder, where Walter Sherman searches for a missing pilot whose plane and remains were found in the Fakahatchee.

Access is via Janes Scenic Drive, an 11-mile unpaved gravel road, and a 2,000-foot boardwalk at Big Cypress Bend that crosses a cypress stand where alligators live. The park lies just west of State Road 29, about 35 miles southeast of Naples. It is open from 8 a.m. until sundown every day of the year.

This place holds the highest concentration of native orchid species found anywhere in North America in such variety. The plants are difficult to spot and many visitors come specifically to see them growing in their natural state.