Myakka River State Park

The entrance of the Myakka River State Park Trail. Photo by me

Every summer my family and I go visit our home in Venice Florida. With so much to explore down there we decided to go look at the Myakka River State Park this summer. The trail we walked down was only a small portion of the park but there was so much to see in just a 20 minute walk. When we first entered the park we were greeted by a sign that warned us of seeing deer and turkeys and other wildlife. While we didn't see any deer or turkeys unfortunately, we saw an abundance of other wildlife. We saw tons of beautiful birds sitting high up in the trees, plenty of geckos wandering around and climbing up the trees, a ton of bees up at the top of the viewpoint, and we even saw an alligator in the water on our way out of the park. Towards the end of the walk there are these stairs that you can climb that bring you higher up than the trees and the view is absolutely breathtaking. It's very exhilarating as you are only standing on this thin platform of wood, but it gives you the whole view of the forest from an angle way up above the trees. I would definitely recommend any who could to go and check out this place. t is such a beautiful and peaceful area. While on our walk we only encountered three other people as we were exiting and they were entering because the trail loops back around, so there isn't a lot of human traffic happening too often which allows you to really focus on the beauty of the park. This park was honestly nothing like any place I had ever been and the pictures truly do not do it justice.

 

The bridge before climbing the stairs. Photo by me

The platform to look out over the park. Photo by me

The view of the park. Photo by me.