Myakka River State Park

Feb. 26-29-We spent 4 nights and 31/2 days at Myakka River State Park and loved it.  Our first day was one of our favorites. We enjoyed waking up to the sounds of birds and then biking on the tree canopied roads.  We loved seeing the alligators under the bridge and continued our ride to a beautiful hike along the river.  The vegetation was so beautiful and we loved spying the alligators and turtles sunning themselves. A walk on the canopy trail in the hammock (name for forest) was so awesome and we loved hiking the tower so much that Janae and Stefan each hiked up a couple more times during our stay.  The comfortable warm breeze with soft sand underfoot while walking under the canopy of trees with Spanish moss was such a gift.  We learned the difference between palm trees and palmettos.  Palm tree leaves come to a point in the center whereas palmettos leaves fan out equally from the center.  Since we were staying in the park, it was a short bike ride home for lunch and then we took a much needed nap.  Something we rarely do but were rewarded with a gentle rain the whole time we rested.  Heavenly. 

When we awoke, we drove up to the concession area and took a walk out to the spillway behind one of the gift shops.  The late afternoon lighting was so beautiful and we saw lots of birds.  My  favorite were the roseate spoonbills.  They are light pink and we saw a whole group resting.  We went out to the bird overlook and saw tons of wildlife through high powered binoculars while we watched the sunset.   Wild hogs, a huge turtle, white pelicans (on their way to Granby Colorado), coots, herons, egrits, ibis’s.  Totally awesome! On the boardwalk back to the car, Stefan said, thanks for bringing us here, I liked this.

Other highlights included an alligator walk with the ranger, a nice dinner with our friends Lori and Todd and hunting for shark teeth.  We learned many interesting  gator facts like the inches between the nose and eyes is equal in feet to the size of the gator.  The largest gator in this park is around 15 feet.  The record size for a gator is around 19 feet. Also, the sex of a gator is determined by the temperature of the nest.  All girls come from a nest of 85 degrees whereas all boys come from a 92 degree nest.  A mixture of temperatures = a  mixture of sexes.  The only place in the world for alligators (which live in fresh water only) are southeastern U.S. and the Yangtzee River in China.  Lori and Todd joined us one evening for dinner at our campsite and they brought the best salad with figs.  They did a good job copying the wonderful salad we had at dinner on Sunday.  We had wonderful fellowship and conversation.  Wish we could see them more.  Janae and I took off one late afternoon and drove to Casperson Beach near Venice beach in search of shark teeth.  We had a lot of fun dragging the silver basket along the rocks and searching for our little black treasures.  We were delighted to find 25.

netting shark teeth

On the peer at Venice Beach

Not all was enjoyable though as one morning we took a hike by permit only into a nature reserve in search of more gators.  It was like hiking in Africa.  Hot, wild and we didn’t see another human for three hours.  However we did see 50 gators but Mark and I disagreed about which trail to take back which made for a very  unpleasant experience.  Ah, I guess we have to have some bad memories, kind of gives dimension to the journey.

We counted 50 alligators in this hole

Our final morning was special as we rode our bikes up to the concession area.  Another glorious, perfect weather day.  As Mark took Janae and Stefan individually out in the canoe in search of tilapia fish, I took the other souvenir shopping.  Stefan is very proud of his gator tooth necklace.  We completed our Myakka stay with a gator stew lunch.  Very yummy.

Camp site #72 was the best in the park and we got to stay in it our last night.  Enjoyed practicing out by the campfire under the stars after everyone went to bed.

Gator Stew

In closing would like to quote some advice from an alligator.

Take a bite out of life.  Keep a low profile.  Bask in the  sun. Have a healthy appetite.  Keep an eye on opportunities. Be thick skinned and don’t be afraid to open your mouth.