Exploring Myakka by Bike

After breakfast, we rode our bikes down to the visitor's center to get a better "lay of the land" and get some ideas on hiking trails.

The building used for the Visitor's Center was formerly a horse barn built by the Civilian Conservations Corp (CCC) back in the 1930's.  Inside, there were several displays of birds and animals found in the park..

After leaving the Visitor's Center, we went to the check-in station and spoke with the park ranger to get information on the best hiking trails.  Unfortunately, the park was flooded and actually closed down a couple of weeks ago.  Many of the trails are still under water but she suggested we try the Ranch House trail and the Canopy Trail.

Next, we rode down to the cabins that had also been built in the 1930's by the CCC.  The cabins are currently closed because of the flooding and will not be re-opened until they have restored them and raised them all 18 inches.

 

We could see how high the water had come up on both the cabins and the surrounding trees during the floods a couple of weeks ago.

When we finished exploring around the cabins, we rode back to our campers for lunch and then headed out on our bikes again to the Canopy Trail.  We stopped at the bridge to look for alligators again and we saw these two off in the distance...

...and this Tri-Color Heron standing among the water hyacinths next to the bridge.

We rode our bikes on further to the Canopy Trail and then walked out the trail among the trees, several of which were covered with Spanish moss and/or ferns.

Parts of this trail was still flooded.

We reached the Canopy Trail which is a suspended foot bridge held between two wooden towers.

We climbed the first tower and walked across the suspension bridge to the other tower.

 

When we reached the other tower, we began climbing up for a view of Myakka from the top of the tower.

 

The tree canopy is so thick you can barely see the ground right below the tower.

After climbing back down the tower, we finished walking the trail out to the bikes and then rode out to our next stop of the power line road...

...to look for a mama gator and her babies we had been told about by some other campers.  We found mama but no babies.

Our last stop on our bike ride was the store at Upper Myakka Lake.  There was a nice view of the lake from the balcony of the store.

We enjoyed some ice cream at the store and then walked out to some benches at the lake and watched this Great Blue Heron for several minutes.

Ken tried calling to him, but the Great Blue Heron didn't pay much attention to him.

We left the lake and began riding back to the campground under the beautiful canopy of trees.

We stopped at one pull-off located next to a bend in the river that was so peaceful and beautiful.

And of course, we stopped at the bridge to look at the birds and alligators again.  This Limpkin was walking around in the water grasses.  You can barely see him among the grasses.

Today we explored Myakka River State Park by bike.  Tomorrow, we will explore by foot!