Last Days at Myakka River

January 7-12, 2024                                             Most Recent Posts:
Myakka River State Park      On the Myakka River and Into the Wilderness
Site 65                                                      Myakka Bird Walk and Outpost              
Sarasota, Florida

 

Myakka River State Park has 39 miles of hiking trails.  Some short, some require backpacking.  There is a horse trail and biking trails as well.

During my final days here, I took the connected hikes on the Nature Trail and the Canopy Walk.

The nature trail, seen here, is  mostly shaded and goes through a Palm-oak hammock. 

Its boardwalk crosses lovely wetlands and there are some plant identification and other informational signage along the trail.

At the parking area for both the Nature Trail and Canopy Walks there are two trailheads.  Taking either one will enable you to connect to the other if you wish.

I walked a mile from the campground and first took the Nature Trailhead and connected to the Canopy Walk.  Building and maintaining this structure is a huge undertaking requiring  thousands of dollars and  over 2500 hours of labor for its construction not to mention on going maintenance much of which is volunteer.

The picture below is the lower tower coming from the Nature Trail.

Along with other informational signs was this map of canopy towers in the US.  I’m curious now to find the others.  This is #14 on the map.  The closest other ones are #13 Columbus GA, #12  Atlanta GA,  #11 Coward S.C.,  #10 Otto NC, and   #9  Sewanee TN.  There are actually canopy walks all over the world including Costa Rica, Peru, Nigeria, and  Germany among others.  There is a list of them all posted.

Before climbing up the entrance steps I walked underneath and looked up.

Looking down as I climbed.  The steps are on the right.

The walk is one way.  It’s wonderful to walk among the branches of the trees.

It’s a long way down.

Once you cross over you can walk up the taller tower and look down on the walk.

You can definitely see a long way including to two small bodies of water in the far distance.  Be sure to bring binoculars.  In this picture I’m at the highest level.

I wish I had come out for sunset.  That’s a definite on my list for “next time”.

In this picture, I’m one level down.  Later in this post I show some pictures of the tower from a distance as it sticks up over the surrounding forest.

This is the taller of the two towers showing the walk coming into it.

The last hike I took was on a threatening rain day and photographs were difficult.  It’s called Alligator Point and was new to me.  Not sure if it is new to the park or somehow I just never got it on my itinerary.

It begins as a road with a wild hog pen on the left.  I definitely have noticed much less wild hog damage in the park this time.  Wish I’d thought to ask about it at the ranger station. 

Mud from the frequent rains was evident.  With the sandy soil the rains usually seep in.

Shortly the trail narrowed.

Alligator point turned out to be in a bend of the river and had a bench for sitting and a picnic table for lunch.

The view included the Canopy Tower  along the tree line just right of midway in the picture.  The pictures of the Anhinga show him sitting on the thin stump in the middle of the little spit of land jutting out into the river.   I can see how why birders in particular might like this spot.

I zoomed for better pictures of the Canopy above the tree line.

This is why I love my canon.  The second picture is not cropped from the first but is a zoom from the original spot at Alligator Point showing the Canopy Walk as just a dot on the tree line.   The camera is much better than my binoculars.

Back to Alligator Point.  Definitely a serene spot.  I didn’t see one person the entire hike.

On the way back I did see this curious red bellied woodpecker.  His colors are not nearly as sharp on this gray day without lightening the picture and making the skies white.

I have a hard time telling a hairy from a downy woodpecker but this bill looks longer so I’m guessing Hairy.

The final bird of the day was the Great Blue Heron.

I’m going to close out this final post from Myakka River State Park with 4 favorite photos from various days and places.

Not sure what the growth is on the front of this hawk.   I have a closer picture of it but it’s not so appealing.

Snowy Egret with golden slippers.

Next up is the first result of the reservation blues.