We had great time on our camping trip to Myakka River State Park. This was the last photo of the trip, on top of the forest canopy tower. It was really windy and my husband wisely wrapped the camera strap around the post. The wind swept the camera off its post and the batteries went plummeting 74' to the ground. That was it for the batteries.
It was great getting to go in the middle of the week because the park as a whole was so much quieter. We saw tons of wildlife. It reminded me of Yellowstone where every car locks it up and clogs the road with gawking at the wildlife 10' off the road. This park didn't have the congestion but definitely had a whole menagerie of animals trained to hang out right next to the road for tourists.
Deer and deer and more deer. Some pigs and many beautiful birds. We saw potentially a hundred alligators. The one in this photo we suspect we saw twice since the two areas we spotted him were so close together. This photo is from the first time. Just after taking this, an alligator in the distance started to roar. This one took great exception and started roaring, hissing and thrashing in response with vocalizations worthy of Jurassic Park. We were thankful we were 50 feet away. The next time we saw it, or its twin, we were floating down the river in the canoe and spooked an alligator on the bank. We were about 20 feet off the bank and potentially this same enormous alligator (biggest of the trip, well over 11') came running at us mouth open. Of course it just wanted to get off the bank and into the water but it definitely got our hearts thumping and reminded us where nature intended us in the food chain.
We almost stepped on the yellow rat snake, pictured above, in the middle of the trail. That's what made the trip so great. Venturing into nature with a 3 year old and a 6 year old is not quiet and we still saw so much neat stuff and only got nervous a couple of times.
Before we left I worked up a night hike printable you can access here. We found everything on our list except for bats, possums, and fireflies.
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7 comments:
Hi! Thank you for linking with Collage Friday.... looks like wonderful nature discoveries were made! So glad to visit your site today!
Wow! I'm not sure I'd want to go camping near alligators! LOL But what a great experience seeing and experiencing all that wildlife close up! And yikes on the camera battery!
Thanks ladies. It was a great trip!
Fun stuff! My snake loving son would have loved to join you guys. Thank you for sharing.
Oh, this looks like fun! Well, except for your battery casualties. We went to an alligator farm in Mexico and thought we had seen everything then. Obviously not! Thank you for sharing on NOBH!
We have our own version of Jerrassic Park here on the farm at Coombe Mill, perhaps not worthy of the name having seen the photos from your trip! Loks like a great time had by all, popped over from Happy Family Times
I would imagine the Aussie crocodiles are pretty impressive!
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