12/22 Myakka River State Park

This is one of my favorite state parks in Florida.  Not only is it huge, but it has a ton of birds and alligators and lots of ways to see them.  It also has three campgrounds, with the newest having full hookups and lots of privacy between sites.  It is also a great campground for bike riding, since there is a very long road to the lake from this full hookup campground, but it also has a paved road that takes you to the other end of the park and a "bird walk."

As I was preparing photos for this posting, I realized I missed taking some photos of some things, so I will fill in the blanks tomorrow as I take a long bike ride.  But in any case, here is my campsite.  I will take more photos tomorrow to show you more campsites.

There are also some really big pull-through sites in this campground:

 And a nice restroom building with a washer and dryer.  

 

One of the best way to see birds and alligators is to stop at the bridge across the Myakka River on your way to the lake and the store.  

 

A clue to good places to stop is to watch where everyone else is stopping and looking!

In this case, you can look both ways to see the river and most likely your friendly, neighborhood alligators.  Mostly, they are friendly because they are hoping you might be fishing from the bridge and they can steal your catch.  They might be waiting for you to fall over the railings, but mostly American alligators are very, very lazy and will not bother going after human beings.  This is the view looking south.

 

 

This is a telephoto view looking north at a small flock of roseate spoonbills, NOT flamingos.  Roseate spoonbills, not flamingos, are the pink birds native to Florida.  Flamingos are just those pink plastic things people put in their yards.  

 

Also, next to the river is another bird, which I think is either a green heron or an American bittern, but when I blew the photo up, the image was not clear. 

A lurking alligator near the bridge.  A good time to see alligators when they are out of the water is a warm, sunny day after a cold night.  A cold night makes them have to climb out on the bank to warm up in the sun.  I liked the way the sun played on the water in this photo.

 On Christmas Day, the two nights previously had been cold, but this day was warm, so there were a lot of alligators at the bridge area sunning themselves. 

 

 

This is the main roadway that goes through the park.

This is a closeup of one of the branches on the tree above.  The dried up stuff is what is called resurrection fern.  This photo was taken before it rained the other day, so it is dried up and curled up.  After it rains, it perks up, turns green, and looks alive again, although of course it was alive when it looked dead previously. 

 

 

This area along the road looks like it has been plowed or rototilled.  In fact, it is wild pig damage.  They root through the ground, destroying the undergrowth and the roots of trees in some cases. 

 

 

 This is a large area that shows pig damage.  In fact, a lot of the land here has been damaged by wild hogs.

 

 

They try to control the hogs, but are not always successful.  At one time, they tried shooting them at dusk, but the hogs were smart and moved to other areas of this very large state park. One solution are traps, like these two.  I once stopped at a gas station where there was a man pulling a trailer with a trap similar to these, except it had a wild hog in it.  He was a VERY angry wild hog and kept banging on the side of the trap and growling.  They can be very dangerous, but I hope they bait these and catch hogs anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

There are some wet areas along the road that attract birds. 

This is a small flock of glossy ibis. 

 

 

You can identify an ibis, regardless of the color, by the curved-down bill.  

 These are sandhill cranes.

 

 And a wood stork.

 

On the left is wetland prairie.  The fact that this state park is so large and such a variety of types of environment makes it a good place for birds and other animals.  There are deer and wild hogs living in the dryer parts of the state park.

This is where one part of the road ends at the big, shallow lake.

 

 

This area has the turkey vultures we are most familiar with in the north, but also a lot of black vultures, which are smaller.  Some of them have become delinquents because they like to tear up windshield wipers and other rubber parts of vehicles.  They don't eat the rubber--they are just having fun tearing it up.  Some places in the Everglades have hung up squeaky dog toys to try to entertain the birds and keep them from destroying cars.  They don't bother vehicles in campgrounds--just parking lots. 

 

This photo was taken a couple of miles away at the bird walk, but you can see how many black vultures hang around this area.

This is a closeup of a black vulture across from the state park store.  The pink bird is a roseate spoonbill with his spoonbill tucked around on his back.  Do not worry.  The vulture will not bother him or her.  In fact, black vultures are very social birds and hang out with a lot of other Florida birds.  You can tell this is a black vulture, not a turkey vulture, because his head and neck are entirely black. 

 

This is only a small portion of the sky above the lake.  Multiple it by about 10, and you can guess how many black vultures were flying around.

Some white pelicans.  These are huge birds, much bigger than the typical brown pelicans common in florida.

A great white heron and some other birds I can't identify. 

A flock of white ibis--yellow beaks, yellow legs, and curved-down beaks.  

This is what they call the "Bird Walk."  It is a boardwalk for watching birds.

And a sign showing the birds of Myakka River.  I like Florida birds because they tend to be big and easily identified.

There is a viewing platform down at the end. 

Christmas Day was a great day for a bike walk and to take photos to add to my blog posting!

12/9 Gamble Rogers State Park, Flagler Beach, FL

Gamble Rogers SP is one of my favorite places in Florida for a couple of reasons.  The first is that it is directly on the Atlantic Ocean, with some of the campsites having a direct view of the ocean.  The second is that it is near Flagler Beach, which is a nice, little town an easy three-mile bike ride away.  

This is also a very, very hard place to get a reservation, especially if you have a bigger vehicle and want one of the handful of campsites that have a good view of the ocean.  It took me several very early mornings in the west to get this reservation for two weeks!  (Reason is that oceanfront sites here are $28 per night, compared to commercial campgrounds in the area that range from $170-$200+ per night!!  And these state park sites are much bigger, although they do not have sewer hookups.) 

Headed towards the ocean at Flagler Beach.  Will turn right at the light towards Gamble Rogers.  I like this little town because it lacks the overdone huge beachfront high-rise hotels and condos that you find in most of Florida. 

You can still park directly overlooking the Atlantic in this little town! 

 

 

The state park is on both sides of the main highway--the beach campground is behind me as I took this photo, but the newer campground that overlooks the inland waterway is on the opposite side.  I have reservations on that side for February. 

The beach sand is an orangy color and consists of mostly tiny broken shell pieces, along with some tiny stones.  It is also a relatively steep beach, at least compared to Pacific beaches in Oregon and Washington.  Also, in spite of the whitecaps, it was not very windy the two weeks I was here.  This photo, by the way, was taken from my campsite!!

The campground is really pretty basic, with dirt roads and hard-packed sandy campsites.  Each site does have water and electric, however, which is nice. 

 

 

This is my campsite.  I don't have much of a view to the left because of the scrub growing on the dune area.  

 

However, on the right side, you can see that I have a partial view.  Actually, it is not bad, but the prime sites are the two next to me, but someone beat me to those!!

 

In Florida, dunes are strongly protected, so you must use a boardwalk to access the beach.  Boardwalks protect dunes, which in turn protect the land and buildings during hurricanes.  You can see in this photo how steep the beach is. 

I used my telephoto to take a picture of the town pier three miles away. 

This is a fishing boat, probably shrimping.  The big nets are lowered by these large arms, and the boat moves slowly, dragging the nets behind it. 

The beach, looking south towards Daytona Beach.  Always lots of people fishing, but I have never seen anyone actually catch a fish.  I think fishing is just an excuse to sit on the beach.

Some kind of a sandpiper.  There are several that look similar so I am not sure which this is.

Cute little guy, probably a sanderling.

View of the top of my motorhome from the beach. 

Another fishing boat with nets deployed.

This is also one of the few areas in Florida where the highway goes so close to the beach.  This means they cannot build big hotels, so there are lots of small homes that overlook the ocean.  And there are three other streets that go parallel to this main highway, so it is possible to buy a reasonably priced home here within a block or two of the beach.  Some of them are old and really need work, but others are in very good condition.