12/7 Myakka River State Park & Old Prairie Campground

I have spent a couple of weeks at this state park in all of the Decembers I have been in Florida.  (I alternate winters in Florida and the Western states.)  I particularly like the full-hookup campground, Old Prairie, near the park entrance.  It is a long way from the lake and store, but it is quiet and the camp sites are well-separated with vegetation and the sites are extremely large. 

This is also the newest of the three campgrounds in this very large state park, and thus also has newer restroom/shower facilities, plus it has a washer and dryer in each of the two restroom facilities here.  Roadways are paved, but campsites are the nice, larger gravel. 

First, a photo of the store down by the lake.  Usually, I spend more time down there, but not this year.  If I have time on my way out on Saturday, I might go back and add some photos. 

Next a photo of one of the two restroom/shower/laundry fcilities in the Old Prairie campground.

And my pull-through campsite.  I am parked towards the far end because that is where the sewer hookup is, but you can see that you can fit a very long RV in this site, plus a couple of cars.  This refutes all the RV owners who believe the myth that you can only fit in a state park or national park site if you have a rig shorter than 30' !!!!!

 

 

And some of the other sites and campground roadways. 

Even the back-in sites are large!!  You can also see how all the vegetation between and after sites makes each site very private. 

A couple of days ago, I was driving on the road that goes to what they call the Bird Walk.  It is a raised boardwalk in an area along the lake that is a good place for watching birds.

However, there was a traffic jam with people stopping cars from passing as they were stopped along the roadway.  I saw a big snake crossing the road and causing all the fuss, so I quickly pulled over and ran up to take photos.  

This is the biggest and fattest Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake I have ever seen!  He was about 6' long and at least 3-4" in diameter--one big and healthy snake!!   He was also a very laid-back snake and not in a hurry to go anywhere, but eventually he headed into the woodsy area. 

 

 

As he disappeared into the leaves, I got a good picture of his tail!!  His rattler was about 4-5" long.  He did not try to rattle it, however. 

This is the Bird Walk.

It's been a good 12 days here, with highs varying from mid-80s to low 70s.  Some nights have been warm enough to run AC all night and some cool enough to keep the furnace on!!  Highs in southern Florida are expected to hang around the 70s for the next month, with lows in 40sand 50s, which I hope will slow the mosquitos down a bit.