Myakka - Jan 30, 2014

As I reported in the previous post, I was in Sarasota with the family when my aunt passed away. There was still grieving to do, but we’d done quite a bit during the week she was unconscious in hospice. My cousins, Mike and Stephanie, Stephanie’s husband, Richard, along with my Uncle Bob, were quite capable of making the necessary arrangements. It was time for me to think about getting my touring underway again. Bob had suggested several times while I was in town that I should see Myakka River State Park, just south of Sarasota, before I left. I had the time, since my next goal was Epcot, and I didn’t want to go there on a weekend. After eleven stationary days in Sarasota, Myakka was a nice transition back into the touring lifestyle.

Myakka is a drive of about forty minutes from Sarasota. I was struck by its beauty even on the drive in, with majestic old trees arching over the road, draped with Spanish moss. Myakka is known for its alligators, so I headed straight to the airboat tour and signed up. This is not the usual sort of fast and loud airboat we think of:

 but a more sedate, much larger, and much quieter kind of airboat:

For the first twenty minutes or so, we just saw a lot of birds:

The bird in the photo above is an Anhinga. Their feathers aren’t as water-repellant as other birds’, so they spread their wings to dry after each dive. Then we caught sight of our first alligator, swimming in the lake:

As our guide pulled closer to the far shore, we began to see a lot of gators:

As we returned to the dock, our best sightings were close to where we started:

I also signed up for a tram tour of the dryer parts of the park. The first wildlife we say was a turtle:

At one point the tram went up a slight rise. The guide said we might expect our ears to “pop”, this was the highest point in the county: 17 feet above sea level. I don’t know if an alligator can be cute, but this mama alligator was trying by giving her baby a ride on her back:

On my drive out of the park, I stopped to hike down a trail. I ran into an ominous collection of vultures:

( I know they don't look like the standard kind of vultures, but informational signs said they are.) There had been signs in the parking lot that this type of vulture is known to eat the rubber weather strip around car windows. I also saw some particularly dense displays of Spanish Moss:

Another stop I made was for a “skywalk” through the forest canopy:

Here’s from one end:

and here’s from the other:

Along the walk, you do see some interesting examples of resurrection ferns:

Their name comes from the fact that they look brown and dead in dry weather, but turn lush and green at the first rain. You can also see several species of airplants:

The tower at the end of the skywalk is taller than the one at the start:

So you can climb several more flights to see the forest from above:

It’s pretty much what you would expect. I enjoyed my day at Myakka. I saw my first gators of the trip - but not my last.

The next day, Sunday, Stephanie, Richard, and I went together to their church. Bob joined us for dinner; plans had been made for him to move in with Stephanie and Richard for a week or two while he adjusted to new circumstances.

Monday, I was off to Epcot, the topic of my next post.