February 18-27, 2026 Most Recent Posts:
Myakka River State Park Myakka Has a Water Problem
Sarasota Florida We’re at Animal Kingdom
I need to begin by apologizing for the length of this post. I really was determined to get all the way through February and believe it or not, I left out a lot of pictures.
Hope you will settle in with a warm or cool beverage depending on the temperature where you are and take a few hikes with me. When I am forced to hang up the keys, I want to be able to relive these hikes at Myakka.
As I said in my previous post (link above right), I wasn’t able to kayak the river at all during my two weeks at Myakka due to the extreme drought and low water levels. That post talked about what I did instead during my first week. This one is about my second week which I started out with a hike to the Canopy Walk.
HIKE 1
A canopy walk is just what it sounds like, a bridge in and above the trees. First you hike to the towers.
The entry tower, entrance on the left, takes you up to the bridge through the trees.
Well designed so you only walk up part of the total steps and then you walk across to another tower and climb all the way up above the trees.
There may be more canopy walks around the world than the 74 shown here since I have no idea when this map was put up. Hiking all the canopy walks in the world sounds like a great bucket list item.
Here is the list of canopy walks in the United States at the time the information was put up. If there is one near you, let me know and be sure to go.
Here is the far tower. There is no entrance here from the ground. You walk the bridge over to it.
I start walking. There is a weight limit so there can be only a person or two on it at one time.
I’m surprised to see this branch. Closer picture of it in a minute. I guess they built the walk around it.
Just before the branch I take this picture looking back where I have come from.
And this one looking down from the walk way. From here the people below are easy to see.
No problem for me but duck your head if you are tall.
The view above the canopy from the top of the tower. The ground looking light brown is also usually marsh.
Looking down from the tall tower. The white dot is a hat on someone’s head.
Looking down through the middle as the stairs wind around and around.
Looking the opposite direction from the tower, it’s hard to tell there is a drought with the green tree tops.
Every time I come to Myakka I say I’m going to come out here at Sunset. I’m still saying it.
HIKE 2
Thank goodness there are so many hikes at Myakka if you can’t kayak. I went out early one wonderfully foggy morning to hike to Alligator Point with the purpose of going on to the sketchy sort of trail that goes up to the river on the opposite side from the Canopy Walk.
I was out early and the sun was trying to burn through the fog.
I could have enhanced this picture of a perfect web and you could have seen the web better, but this is how I saw it in the fog. I find the whole thing enchanting.
Alligator Point is the end of the road for most folks. It’s a very nice picnic spot with a sitting bench and picnic table in the shade. Right on the river.
Still foggy.
Not as many gators as usual but with my zoom lens I was able to get two in the water one of which is showing only his eyes and a third one on the bank with his tail in the water.
I like this eerie looking shot.
If I were these two, I’d be watching those eyes.
I walked on beyond Alligator Point down the “service road” that leads to it.
I love webs. There were so many this morning. I’m not sure why or if that’s the way it is every morning.
Can you see the weaver in the center?
Most folks don’t walk this far down to what I call the powerline cut trail. You can see it has grown up since the last time it was mowed and not enough hikers keep it worn.
But I like its views of the river and see many birds when I’m here. I don’t think I’ve ever been here when there was anyone else. Another nice thing.
Wonderful reflections.
This cut through across the river is much shorter, wider and just off the park road so it’s used more frequently. But no one is there this morning.
You can walk right down to the river which I did. The opposite powerline cut is in the far right.
When I got down there, two Sandhill Cranes flew in to that spit of land in the middle above.
Because of the low water levels there is a pretty big section of the bank exposed that had snail shells.
I I were an artist like Georgia O’Keeffe, I might have brought these home to paint.
Headed back down the high grass path.
My non water bird sighting for the day.
The other thing I saw was the canopy tower. I hadn’t noticed it earlier. Can you see it in the far distance sticking up above the tree line?
Zoomed in.
HIKE 3
My most frequent hike was along the river behind the CCC Building where the Tuesday Coffees are held. It goes along a stretch of the river that is one I usually kayak. I did this hike multiple times. It is very close to the campground on the opposite side of the park road..
The trail leads to the CCC Building
Behind the building which can be rented for gatherings are picnic tables on the river.
The trail I hike continues from there. You can see it was another foggy morning. What they really need is serious rain.
This is a shot of the trees above me and one I often take in various locations. I love it when there is a bench I can lay down on and just look up through the trees which in this instance are sable palms.
The trail continues and is wide until you arrive at a further and even bigger rentable shelter near the ranger station. That’s where most folks stop.
From there the trail narrows and is not maintained. I’m not sure it’s even considered an official trail beyond the bigger shelter.
If you have followed me for some time, you may remember one year when I was hiking here in the later afternoon. Up ahead an alligator was lazily stretched out across the trail. I waited and watched but he did not move but clearly had his eye on me so I had no choice but to bushwhack my way through what you see in these two pictures to try to get around him and back to the trail beyond. Which I did.
Along the trail there are several spots where you can step out and see the river.
I love when the gators have only their eyes out of the water.
Like the pelican they are so prehistoric looking.
So patient and watchful.
HIKE 4
On Wednesday the day before leaving Myakka, I took my final hike for this year to the Nature Trail. To get there, I walked again by the shrinking water at the kayak put in. It seemed even further away from the end of the path than it had been last week and I’m standing closer to it off the road and on the path.
But surprisingly, I saw a hawk on the ground in the grass. Very exciting.
Walking across the bridge, I saw gators gathered on the banks and skulking in the water.
I saw a Great Blue Heron’s successful catch but couldn’t get a photo when he tossed the fish in the air and gulped it down whole.
I am amazed that I could get this picture of a Bald Eagle flying overhead.
Walking on down the road, I stopped at a pull out off the road next to the river known as Artist’s Point. I heard the racket of screaming hawks and saw one then a second land in a tree. Could be the one I had seen earlier at the kayak launch.
When one of the pair left I was able to get this shot of the remaining one.
The Nature Trail head is the same as that for the Canopy Walk.
Eventually the trail splits. To the right is the Canopy Walk and the left is the Nature Trail.
This just above ground level boardwalk appears to be unnecessary in the dry surroundings but normally this area is quite marshy and you would not walk through it.
It’s early in the year and the leaves are barely out on the trees. Some of the green in this picture is the epiphytes (air plants) on the trees such as shoestring fern, grassy leaf airplant, butterfly orchid and spanish moss. According to scientists, they do not harm the trees since they live in the treetops collecting dew and storing rain for dry times. I’m not sure I agree that spanish moss does not harm the trees since it can nearly cover a tree preventing the sunlight from reaching it.
A second boardwalk is also covering dry ground.
The branches going across the trail here has Resurrection Fern growing all along it. The fern is brown, dry and brittle looking but not dead. It will turn a gorgeous green as soon as it rains. Thus its name. It too is an epiphyte in this case using the tree as support but not harming it.
I returned to the river after hiking the Nature Trail.
By now you are probably saying “too many alligators”. I really do love their looks. Doesn’t he look like he is smiling and plotting? Maybe even giving me the eye?
NOT HIKE 5
That night, I woke up at 3:30 am to use the bathroom and when I opened my eyes, the movement in the room and queasy feeling made it clear that my Unilateral Vestibular Hypofunction had returned.
This time it was not nearly as bad as the first time. I had no fever, and as long as I lay in bed with my eyes closed things were OK. But after about 5 hours of trying to stop the vomiting, I gave up called the park and then 911. They took me to Doctor’s Hospital in Sarasota. I took one picture of it.
They too had trouble getting the vomiting to stop and along with several other things, they gave me valium which made things about 1000 times worse. Finally mid afternoon on Thursday I was pretty much back to normal but they were doing all their tests CAT Scan, MRI and wouldn’t release me until the results came in which turned out to be the next day
I had a very nice single room in this small hospital. The staff were very good. The best thing though was the food. I wish it had been this good in Orange City during my first longer hospitalization. In fact it was so good I took pictures of the menus. Though if you read them you will see cardiologists might not approve. Cheese and eggs every day would not pass reduced cholesterol advice.
I have been amazingly lucky in both of these hospitalizations. In these two parks both campgrounds were wonderful about my being unable to vacate my site. Both times it happened at the end of my stay. I called the campground before I called 911. In fact I waited from 3:30 to 8:30am so I could let them know. They sent a ranger out to be with me while I waited and he told me not to worry that they sites kept open for emergencies and my rig would be right here when I returned. They would move reservations. In fact when I did get back Friday afternoon they said I could further stay the entire week-end to make sure it was safe for me to leave. If you know my story about Little Manatee River Campground forcing me to leave the day after David’s death you will understand how fantastic this was and how appreciative I was.
I was also lucky in that for both of these incidents someone I knew was amazingly nearby. This time it was my friend Suzanne also from Virginia who was staying in the campground and drove to the hospital to bring me back since I obviously had no transportation of my own. I can’t express how grateful I was for her help.
THANK YOU SUZANNE!
I’m fine and again no one has any idea why this happened which of course makes it concerning that in another 18 months it might show up again.
Now I was 3 days late but I moved to Silver Springs and there I could go kayaking.
Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end! Let me know in the comments if you did.
