Get Up Close with Wolves at This Unique Florida Destination

Photo by Seacrest Wolf Preserve

Did Little Red Riding Hood lie? You can rub their bellies, scratch them until a hind leg starts kicking, and join them for a melodic howl. Discover that wolves are more cuddle than bite at Seacrest Wolf Preserve.

A small rural city nestled between Tallahassee and Pensacola, Chipley is home to an underrated preserve that is dedicated to saving one of the most feared creatures in pop culture: the wolf. Seacrest Wolf Preserve is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is committed to the conservation of wolves and other wildlife. As such, it offers four different tours with the goal of educating the general public about the little-known truths surrounding wolves.

Saturday Group Tours are a 3-hour walking adventure starting at 10:00 a.m. CST.  This tour, limited to 50 guests, will allow you to be in the Grey and Arctic Wolf enclosures, interacting with the wolves and exploring their habitats with a guide while learning about the species. Saturday Group Tours cost $50 per person with the option to add on a photo opportunity where a Seacrest professional will use your phone or camera to take pictures with you and some of the wolves after the tour for $5.

Private Group Tours are available on weekdays for groups of at least 30 people. This tour is structured synonymously to the Saturday Group Tour, but the preserve will be closed to the general public and reserved exclusively for your group, whether it is a school field trip, club, church group, corporate outing, or other gathering. Private Group Tours also run $50 per person, but the group is allowed to bring one phone or camera for a Seacrest professional to capture 100 or more photos of the guests with the wolves.

Like the Private Group Tours, Private VIP Tours are available on weekdays, the preserve will only be open to the members of the tour, and the guests may bring a phone or camera for a Seacrest professional to take pictures. This 2-hour experience is for a minimum of two people and costs $250 per person, then $150 per person after the first two. For an additional $75, a Seacrest professional will also take a short video of the guests howling with the wolves.

Photo by Seacrest Wolf Preserve

In addition, the Small Animal Adventure, which lasts for 25 to 35 minutes at the end of the tour, is included in the Saturday Group Tour and Private Group Tour. During this experience, guests will get to hold, play with, and possibly feed animals like skunks, foxes, opossums, and racoons. This interaction is only available to guests who book a wolf encounter tour and can be added into any Private VIP Tour as well, but the time this tour takes will come out of the guests’ time with the wolves.
​
Seacrest also offers Professional Photography Session Tours from Mondays through Fridays, exclusively between November and mid-March, where photographers can get in the Gray and Arctic Wolf enclosures and safely capture the essence of the wolves up-close and in a natural environment. This is the only tour where guests can bring their own camera, take their own pictures, and get photos of the wolves by themselves. This tour costs $450 for a 2-hour session or $650 per photographer for a 4-hour session with the option to bring additional guests without cameras at $200 per person.

All prices listed above do not include tax, and all tours are by reservation only, are for anyone 10 years old or older, are accompanied by Seacrest’s professionals, and have a set list of rules and regulations that guests must follow. 

As for the dress code, guests are asked to wear a crew neck or long sleeve shirt, jeans or khakis, and athletic or canvas shoes only. For the safety and comfort of the guest, it is important that the pants do not expose the ankles or any skin or have holes. Wearing prescription glasses is acceptable.

Guests are not permitted to wear or bring shorts, leggings, sweatpants, jackets, hats, scarves, and a variety of other fabrics and items. In part, this is because the wolves are known for their curiosity and like to steal. For a complete list of what should and should not be worn on a wolf encounter tour, visit the visitor rules page on Seacrest’s website here. 

Furthermore, any form of smoking or vaping is prohibited within the wolf enclosures and Seacrest’s dog and service animal policy is particular. Due to the natural competition between wolves and dogs, the presence of a dog is likely to spark aggression in the wolves. So, service animals must remain at least 500 feet from the wolf enclosures at all times.

It is also worth noting that Seacrest has a strict photography policy. This organization claims ownership to all legal rights of any photos taken on the preserve and does not allow any photos to be taken of the wolves through the fence or of the wolves by themselves unless involved in a Professional Photography Session Tour. Guests attending the Saturday Group Tour may only bring disposable cameras with them, and guests attending the Private VIP Tour may give a Seacrest professional one phone or camera to photograph them with.

Since 1999, the founders of Seacrest Wolf Preserve, Wayne and Cynthia Watkins, have been using their organization to educate the public on wolves and wildlife conservation. At this time, this non-profit is home to 22 wolves of the Grey, Arctic, and British Columbia subspecies and around five other species of smaller native animals. Seacrest’s mission is to raise awareness on the need for wolf conservation.

According to Seacrest, the wolf is an underprotected wild species that is being driven “to extinction” due to the lack of federal protection. Seacrest also states that “Anti-Wolf entities are now empowered to shoot, snare, murder, and trap America's wild wolves through outrageously cruel and heinous methods that were once against the law”. 

If you want to aid Seacrest in its mission, you can donate here, symbolically adopt one of the Seacrest wolves here, or apply to volunteer onsite or offsite here.

Article by Ema Tibbetts

*Uncovering Florida is in no way affiliated with Seacrest Wolf Preserve and receives no commissions from sales.*