Myakka River State Park in Sarasota County, Florida

Photograph: Trail in Myakka River State Park.jpg by Mx. Granger · CC0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Sarasota County attraction

Myakka River State Park

Sarasota County · Gulf Coast

Thirty-seven thousand acres of prairie, hammock and wetland east of Sarasota, with a walkway through the tree canopy and a great many alligators.

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ABOUT THIS PLACE

The Civilian Conservation Corps laid this park out in the 1930s and it opened in 1941, which makes it one of the oldest and by far the largest of Florida's state parks. The Myakka River runs through it and was the first river in the state designated Wild and Scenic. Upper and Lower Myakka Lakes sit along its course, and the Deep Hole, reached on foot by permit, gathers several hundred American alligators in the dry season, which is a sight that changes how people think about this state. The canopy walkway was the first public canopy trail in North America: a suspended bridge 100 feet long hanging 25 feet up, with a tower rising to 74 feet at one end. Airboats named Gator Gal and Myakka Maiden run tours from the boat basin. A scenic drive of about six and a half miles crosses the park, with hiking trails and six primitive campgrounds reached from it, at Mossy Hammock, Bee Island, Panther Point, Honore, Oak Grove and Prairie

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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