Travel - Exploring Southwest Florida’s Myakka River State Park

in #nature5 years ago

Our hosts here in Florida know we like to hike and took us to Myakka River State Park, 52 square miles of parkland along the Myakka River and lake. It included lots of varieties of palms, ferns, and live oaks, all accented with air plants and Spanish Moss. It is also famous for its alligators, but the trails we hiked today revealed more exotic birds than gators.

Nature Trail Loop

The Nature Trail Hike is a loop hike that is adjacent to the Canopy Walkway. The loop is flat, very easy, and a little less than a mile around. It takes you through a variety of palm and live oak lined trails and through several marsh areas that were very beautiful.

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Surprisingly we did not see any alligators in any of the small lakes or marsh areas.

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The air plants, small spiky little grassy plants, covered many of the trees along the path.

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These plants gave the tree branches a fuzzy orange look.

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The Canopy Walk

Adjacent to the Nature Trail is the Canopy Walk, where you climb up a wooden tower and walk on a swinging bridge across the tree tops.

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If you have no fear of heights, you can keep going up the tower to well above the canopy and can see for miles and miles.

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It was kind of surprising how much the wooden tower swayed with the wind at the top.

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The River Trail

Another nice trail for families and others not looking for a long hike is the River Trail, a flat trail through the palm trees along the Myakka River. We thought we’d see more alligators, but only saw a couple.

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It’s a great trail for a sunny day, because it is shaded for much of the mile out and mile back.

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We saw some kayakers enjoying the river as we hiked. Hopefully they didn’t run into any alligators either.

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Our friends are not big hikers, but this was a nice day in the park for hikers and non hikers as well. It’s worth visiting if you are on the southwest coast of Florida.

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wow ,amazing places.

Gorgeous photos @dabeckster!! That looks like an awesome trail. I would be happy with only seeing two alligators..lol. U & R! :)

So beautiful, great shots!

Wow this is just amazing, beautiful photographs and the tower - amazing you can climb so high for such a good view - but also scary it moves so much when you are up there!

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It was a lot of fun, but not if you have a fear of heights!

Those are all trails I would love to do even the canopy walk, Having walked on high communications towers the height and swaying would not be an issue for me and worth going up there for the cool views

A family member of mine used to climb radio towers in Iceland back in the 50s. I bet he had some spectacular views.

Ohh yeah the views when you are at the top of a tower can be spectacular on a nice day, but back when I did it we didnt have cellphones and I wasn;t into photography then and even if I had been I am not so sure I would want to carry a camera 300 Feet up the towers we used LOL

Cool and nice marsh areas with trees photography.

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