Let's See Florida

This was our weekend to start seeing Florida. I've had the information about Myakka State Park on my computer for more than a year and I happened to open it last week when I was cleaning up the computer. I figured this was a good place to start. So packed up the cooler and the camera stuff and hit the road this morning.

Went down through Haines City, Zolfo Springs, Arcadia and then onto the State Park. We were getting a bit worried because the fog wasn't lifting and it was after 0900. Just before we got to the park the fog was gone, it was still overcast but that was okay.

Paid our entry fee and stopped at the visitors center to watch the "What to see at the Park" video, looked at all the exhibits and then we were on our way.

Stopped at all the pullouts. We saw so much wildlife, much more than I had imagined. One of the first stops was along the water, saw three gators staring each other down, an anhinga all puffed up and preening, a bald eagle looking very majestic and a huge group of vultures soaring over us. Spent quite a while here looking at all the animals.

We were driving along and the ground was all dug up like someone had been using a roto-tiller on it and the next thing we saw was three pigs rooting around and our question was answered.

Our next sighting came because we adhere to the philosophy of: if there is a car pulled over and everyone is looking into the woods, stop and look also. There must be something there. This time it was a doe laying down just taking it easy. As I was taking her picture another doe walked into the frame. She was a bit smaller but just as beautiful. Shifted around so I could see her better and get some shots. By the time we were done looking at the deer, there were five other cars and a bunch of bicyclists watching the two deer.

Stopped at the concession area and we checked out the gift shop and got a pin for my collection. We didn't hang around there long because there were just to many people. So we headed out to hit the spots we missed on the way in. One of stops was the Canopy Walk and Tower Nature Hike. By this time we were getting hungry so made a couple of sandwiches. Why does everything taste better when it is eaten outside?

After lunch we walked the nature trail and arrived at the Canopy Walk, which is a suspension bridge strung between two towers. The bridge was a bit shaky but that was nothing compared to the top of the tower. It was shaking so much it was hard to hold the camera steady. The view was pretty spectacular and no matter how much the tower was shaking I really didn't want to go back to the ground. Had to finally head down so other people could come up to the top.

That was our last stop of the day and it was time to go home. We took I-75 to I-4 and the traffic was pretty bad but we made good time and we were home by about 1600. All in all a very good day. Can't wait to explore somewhere else in Florida.