Our Tour Of Myakka River State Park

On May 2nd, we took a wonderful 4 hour “Orientation Tour” given to all Myakka River State Park volunteers!
Meet Jim Watson, our tour guide and he has been a volunteer here for years.
 Jim and his wife Lois spend several months a year as volunteers here. Lois works in the Visitor Center answering many, many, many questions by visitors!

First critter we saw on our orientation tour was a turkey! Warning….  most of the following images were shot through the window of a bouncing 4X4 Ford Explorer!  Not much here totally in focus!
Below is Clay Gully…. a very slow moving creek

Clay Gully is also a great fishing hole as evidenced by the red plastic bobber caught up in the tree!
Many deer share their world here at Myakka River State Park which is the main reason the speed limit is 25mph here. You never know when a deer will jump out in the middle of the road! We have witnessed it many tines!

Jim and Chuck in the front seat as we all go “Uh Oh rain drops” on the windshield!

The rain stayed in the distance although we did get a few quick showers.

The Pickerelweed below is beautiful plant to look at but NOT a native plant to Florida.  It is prolific and quickly chokes out native plants and choking up our waterways!

I thought I had captured an alligator in the background, but upon closer examination it was just a neat old log!


Another deer enjoying the wild side of Florida! New antlers are just beginning to show on this guy!

One of our  stops was at the Sweetmeadow Pastures ranch site. The original pioneer family of ranching lived here, laughed here, worked here and loved here long before “here” became a state park.

Bertha Palmer was enticed by the lush wetlands and a vast grassy prairie land. In 1910 she built her 19,000 acre ranch along the banks of the Myakka River. Mrs. Palmer was innovative in her approach to ranching. Over her short 8 year tenure, she introduced Brahma bulls improving her spindly Florida herd. she also built dipping vats to combat tick fever. She also fenced in her land, all unheard of customs in her day!
This is one of her dipping vats.  You would walk the cattle in at one end, through the dip potion and out the other end.




Can you even imagine walking 100’s of cattle through these vats???

I am sure you all have heard of saw palmetto, the herb to help men’s prostrate. Below is a saw palmetto and the small flowers peeking out are the medicinal part of the plant.

Another deer watching us pass by!

Below is known as “deep hole”.  Alligators collect themselves here.  It is just one of the mysteries of Myakka State Park.



Below is an Osprey perched on a branch far, far, far away which my hand held 300mm tried its best to get a good image!

If you enjoy camping, whether in your backyard  or in one of the many state or national parks that our beautiful America enjoys, you might love this recipe!
Waffle cones with marshmallows, chocolate chips, bananas, and strawberries. Wrap in tinfoil and throw on the fire. aaaaahmazing

Saying goodbye to our good camping volunteer friends Connie and Cecil.  Their time here is up and they head back to upper Michigan for the summer months and home gardens!


DoogieBowser and Radar definitely love living the life of vagabond gypsy doggies!

It seems hard to believe that in 4 short weeks our time here at Myakka River State Park will be done. KaPut! Over! UNTIL we get the opportunity to return again as volunteers!  We have really enjoyed our time here and we encourage all of you consider volunteering at one of the state parks in your area!

We are lucky here at Myakka that we have such a wonderful support group, “Friends Of Myakka” pay for our uniforms, our equipment and our immediate needs at the park. Below is the fancy swamp buggy used in helping with control burns and trimming the trees with low hanging branches just waiting to snag one of the larger RV Motorhomes!

These tires are almost as tall as I am!

We hope you enjoyed this tour of Myakka State Park and will one day get to visit this piece of Old Florida!
Florida, before the land grabbers and the land developers came and decided they had bigger and better ideas for “La Florida”  Land of flowers!
We hope you get the opportunity to come explore this “wild” piece of Florida soon!
Please leave a comment!  We like to read about your thoughts!
Happy Trails from the crew of the “MotherShip”  Chuck, Geri, DoogieBowser and Radar!

 

Loving it at :-) Myakka River State Park !

Chuck quickly backed into our beautiful, canopied campsite at the Big Flats campground at Myakka River State Park, east of Sarasota Florida. Huge old oaks, towering pines and drapery of spanish moss welcomed us!

With the camo color of The MotherShip, we blend right into the background!


Looking out our back window, all we see are more palms and the wide open Florida prairie where the deer and the wild pigs entertain daily!


DoogieBowser makes himself comfey! Later, Radar grabs Doogie’s perch!



Camped near us was this cool RV with an even cooler car tag “R RDTRIP”
And even cooler was their towed car and the car tag it wears!
SMRTOAD!




Early morning starts gently at our campground, slivers of sunshine invading the wild woods.


                     
Wild towering palms and draperies of spanish moss catching the sun!

Canopied roads, ancient oak trees reaching out across the road ways to touch it’s neighbor on the opposite side providing shade for all.

Our first day there, Chuck saw this bald eagle. Of course I had my wide angle lens on and had to crop like crazy to get any sort of photo at all…. 
 
Great Blue Heron looking for lunch. Myakka River State Park is teeming with wildlife. Grab your camera and your longest lens and you will not be disappointed!

Alligator swimming towards a Roseate Spoonbill, a Snowy Egret and a couple of Cormorants. Below, the spoonbill decides to leave the alligator and heads to the resting area of several wood stork.



Kayaking is popular here as well as canoeing.

Not sure, but the heron above is probably a Little Blue or maybe a Tri-colored.


Just another Gator peeking up out of the water……

The trees at Myakka are loaded with air plants! Everything from Resurrection Fern to Bromeliads thrive here!

Airboat tours are available and these ladies have a front row seat!

Vultures! Lots and lots of vultures! Tis the mating season and they gather in warm sunny Florida to find their love life high in the skies….   and next to some not so prudent tent campers who left their snacks out on their picnic table , below.



More vultures and alligators!  Look at that big boy’s tooth…..  



This is the beginning of the Canopy Trail. It will take you back to the tall tower below and a suspension bridge taking you from one tower to another.

Since I do not do stairs well, and these towers meant a lot of stairs, I handed Chuck the camera and up he went.

At the top of the tower, you get a full 360 degree view of Myakka River State Park.



  Two views of the suspension bridge  .                         


Anhinga, also known as the “snakebird” because it swims below the water with only its head and long slender neck above water.

Great Blue Heron

Osprey sitting in a pine. Just moments before, I saw this bird in the sky and purposely bumping into a vulture making it tumble a bit. After the hit, the osprey gave a loud victory call, bragging to the world!

Wood storks resting by the waters edge.

Fishing is good from the bridge! These folks are using cast nets to catch tilapia.
Tilapia are non-native and  considered an invasive species of fish. Myakka will allow you to keep all the non-native fish, but you must return all native fish to the water!










 
Another deer taking a break in the shade.
The end to another wonderful day at Myakka River State Park! Chuck and I love Florida State Parks so much, we have decided we would like to volunteer here.  We got a contact name and number and called and left a phone message expressing our interest in  becoming volunteers at Myakka. That was Friday afternoon, and by golly, this morning we got a return phone call and seems like we may have a very good chance of working here this spring for a few months! YaY!  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

From the crew of the MotherShip, Chuck, Geri and our furkids DoogieBowser and Radar, we hope you enjoyed seeing this wonderful Florida park with us!
We are now camped at Highlands Hammock State Park near Sebring FL. Another jewel in the Florida State Parks Crown!