My husband planned the perfect February 14th
outing this year. We drove about 60 miles to the Myakka
State Park where we strolled the
day away in natural Florida
splendor.
We started out discovering what the “canopy walk” was all
about. When I later described it to my daughter in law, she said it sounded
like an Ewok village, which was absolutely right.
After climbing one fairly tall wooden structure (via stairs, of course) we walked across a bridge that gently swayed with each step. I don’t ride roller coasters, and Ferris wheels are over the top for me, but this felt deliciously dangerous.
The structure on the other side of the bridge rose over 70 feet in the air, and we climbed to the top. This put us way above the canopy with a 360 degree view of the park, a real eagle’s eye look. (By the way, there are bald eagles that make their home here).
Our next stop was a short drive to the lake, where enormous numbers of tourists were “enjoying” dozens of black vultures doing not much of anything and a couple of alligators meandered through the water.
It was time to find a quiet and unpeopled place.
We took another short drive, discovered a promising looking trail head, parked and headed off down the wide and grassy route. This led us to another trail, much narrower.
Now we were strolling through glorious hammocks full of oaks, palmettos and birdsong.
We spotted a raccoon at some distance, making his hunchbacked escape once he heard our clumsy approach.
We found a clearing, sat on a log and realized all we could hear was the wind and the birds. We stayed there a while, soaking up the experience. The leaves against the sky were an impressionist painter’s dream.
Back on the trail, a family of armadillo shuffled through the underbrush, honoring us with a quick glimpse before loudly disappearing again.
We headed back to the car and drove to the bird watching “boardwalk” just down the road.
But it wasn’t birds we discovered. It was an entire family of wild pigs, including 2 spotted piglets! The mom and dad were all black, and so was a third piglet. Fascinated, we stood there and watched them snort around for 20 minutes or so, me so sorry we didn’t bring the camera.
One of the park’s animals I didn’t get to see was a siren- a native Florida salamander that can grow up to 2 feet in length! They live in the river and are common but hard to catch a glimpse of due to their secretive life style. That would have made my day. I’ve loved amphibians since I was a little girl.
But all in all, The Magic Zoo had a great outing at the Myakka State Park and both Ed and I will be back with the rest of our family in tow sometime soon. I don’t think I can wait long to watch our 3 1/ 2 year old grand daughter transverse that Ewok bridge.
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