Sorry we haven’t posted for several months.  Been a super busy summer and now we can get back into the groove of things around here.

I sure hope that everyone had an awesome summer and that you visited a few state parks!

We will be visiting a few parks during the week next week and will have those articles posted ASAP!

On Sunday May 16th there will be free entry to all state parks except Skyway Fishing Pier State Park.

Even though it is very cost efficient to head to the state parks for a day of fun for the entire family, in these times of hardship it sure does help to save a few dollars on the entry of the parks.

So pack the ice chests and grab the Frisbee and head out to a park today.

Make sure to take advantage of the park locator on this site.

Another awesome event coming up in May.

Friday may 28th-30th.  Florida Folk Festival at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs.

That looks like a LOT of fun!! If you are anywhere near this park I would check this one out.  Make sure to let us know how it was.

Have a wonderful Month of May!!

The fishing from here must be amazing because there were lots and lots of trucks and boat trailers in the parking lot.

The launching fee is $5.00.

Another nice thing about this park is that they post all upcoming events all over the park.  Sometimes smaller parks are more intimate and in tune with the community and therefore it feels like they care about the surrounding area and its residents.  

There are nice little hotel rooms to rent and stay a while at this park and I do recommend that. They are shady and quite cozy.  Fire pit out front and a picnic table.  We really enjoyed our visit to this park and suggest that if you want a nice place to put your boat in the water  that you come here.  I also would love to just sit back along the river and read while Travis and Austin fish.

Thanks for such a nice experience Econfina River State Park.  We will be back!!

The lake is gorgeous!! There is a really nice boat dock which leads you into the gorgeous Lake Manatee.  Boat motors have to be less than 20 horse power.  Kayaking and canoeing are a wonderful relaxing way to enjoy the surrounding scenery.  Lake Manatee serves as a  water reservoir for Manatee and Sarasota counties.  Don’t let the name fool you.  You will not see any manatee here.  There is a dam between the lake and manatee river.  You will however be able to see and catch plenty of fish.  Make sure you have the proper fishing licenses.  The park also boasts a wonderful fishing dock.

There is swimming allowed in designated areas and a pretty nice day use area with a large covered pavilion.  There is a fee for reserving the pavilion.

There were paths for walking through the area.  I also saw a lot of people on bikes enjoying the wonderful Florida weather.

Overall opinion on this park is good. We arrived like 10 minutes before the park closed so we pretty much only had enough time to ride around and snap a few photos.  The lake is great!  Wonderful place to go fishing and relax for the day or a nice long weekend of camping and fishing combined.  As always, we are never disappointed by another one of Florida’s beautiful state parks!!

This is an equestrian friendly park.  As far as I could see all the trails are open to the horses.  you might want to call the park first to make sure what area’s are open for horses just to make sure.

Admission to this park was $6.00 per car load. Not too bad for a family to have an entire day of fun!! There are a few rather large pavilions as well as lots of picnic tables and bar-b-que area’s ready for use.  There is a playground for the kids and lots of trails for nature exploring.  Always remember to stay on the paths!  I have come down with some rather interesting rashes from “exploring” off the beaten path!! Not cool!!

There is canoe rental available and I highly recomend this.  LOTS of fun and what an awesome way to see parts of the park that otherwise you would not be able to see.

The swimming area here is HUGE! Lots of room for having a good time.  When we visited there was at least 20 or so people swimming and yet still plenty of room for two visitors to swim laps all around the spring.  Kids were throwing frisbee’s and balls and no one got in anyone elses way.

Bug news:  No bug bites for Pam today!! haha The only annoying bug was a few pesty mosquitoes.  I am thinking this is partly due to the temp outside.  It was only about 70 or so.  I am thinking more bugs will be around once the warmer weather starts.

I do higly recommend this park for couples and families alike.  There so much to do here.

On a side note we haven’t been to a park in about 5 months now and if you ask me that is way too long. We’re going to flip a coin here soon and choose a park from a hat and then head off into the sunset in search of a new adventure to share with you fine folks. Pam’s sister is flying in from California today and we’ve already told her that we’ll take her to one of Florida’s beautiful springs I just hope that the weather cooperates as it’s been unpleasantly cold lately but the water is supposed to remain the same temperature year round. Still think I’d be more inclined to swim in during the warmer days though. We’ll be headed down to Venice Beach this weekend in search of some shark teeth and stuff so we might find a park while we’re there as well. Regardless we will definitely keep you informed and we will take plenty of photos as always.

Upon arriving we stopped in at the Welcome Center’s Interpretive Exhibit and checked it out for a few. There’s some pretty interesting things in there and a lot of information on some of the wildlife that you might encounter while visiting the park. On display they have some birds, a Florida Panther,  Bald Eagle, a few turtles and this really ugly huge slimy thing that is actually called a two toed something and it’s pretty weird. Looks kind of like a giant slug/snake. Anyway, from there we headed on down the road where we stopped to check out some of the cabins that you can rent if you choose to stay at the park overnight. The cabins are pretty decently sized in my opinion though we did not get a chance to actually look inside of one. The cabins are tucked away in their own little areas which is nice and means that they are not right on-top of one another.

From there we made our way further into the park where we saw a couple alligators that were pretty lengthy. If we had to guess we’d say definitely between 10 and 14 feet each out of 3 total that we spotted in the one area. We also spotted a wild hog out rooting in one of the hammocks along the road-way. We also went for a little walk on over to the canopy walk that they have there. This was awesome. First you come to a small tower with stairs leading up to the canopy of the hammock where you can walk across a suspension bridge to another tower. Once making it over to the other side, you’ll want to head on up the second tower to the very top. I will warn you there is a lot of stair climbing involved so if you don’t like how that sounds, you may want to skip that. Though the hike back to the canopy walk is beautiful and definitely worth it. It really isn’t far back on the trail and if you like there are other trails as well that will take you deeper into the hammocks where around each corner there is something new to discover. If you get here early enough and you’re quiet you may even get lucky and find some deer in the park. Pam and I have some friends that love to go here right as the park opens to go out and take photos of the deer so we know they’re there but unfortunately today we did not see any.

On a side note, we’ve had quite a bit of rain lately and because of this some areas of the park are flooded over. I had to take my shoes off on the way to the canopy walk so that i could wade through ankle deep water. So bring some shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty if you’re planning a trip to the park at this time of year. Really not a big deal to me i don’t mind getting my feet wet now and then but if that doesn’t interest you then this is your heads up.

We also took one of the boat tours that they offer at the park. The tours are on a huge covered airboat which is really cool but don’t expect it to go very fast. It’s a nice relaxing tour out on the lake and the tour guide is pretty funny and makes lame jokes that make you laugh for example: did you hear about the race between the two silk-worms? they ended up in a tie. Tickets are sold on the boat and adults 12 and over are $12 each and children 5-12 years of age are $6. If you have a red ticket however, you can get adult admission for $6. We have 3 of these red tickets to give away to anyone planning a trip to Myakka River State Park so if you would like just leave us a comment and we will contact you to find out where we should send them. After our trip on the lake we went into the gift shop / cafeteria to try some gator stew that was delicious.

All in all, Myakka River State Park is gorgeous and offers a a variety of activities for anyone. It’s definitely one of my favorite parks. It’s huge, there’s wildlife all over, gorgeous cabins that you can rent, a canopy walk, and a gift shop that serves up gator stew.  Dogs are allowed at the park as long as they are leashed. They’re allowed on the dirt roads and main use areas of the park. They are not permitted on the Myakka Wildlife Tours, canoes, primitive campgrounds, cabins, or any other buildings. Can you fish at the park? definitely! just make sure to have a current Florida Freshwater Fishing License which can be obtained at any WalMart for $12 if I recall correctly and is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase.

I think that about covers Myakka River State Park pretty well. If you can think of anything we forgot to mention or would like to share your adventure at this beautiful park, please feel free to drop us a line in the comments.

Have fun and happy shooting.

As for us we haven’t been to any parks as of lately but we have plans to visit a spring or something here in the coming weeks. You can be sure that we will let you know when we do. If we live din the area we’d come out and help ourselves but unfortunately that’s a bit of a drive at the moment so we won’t be able to attend.

Happy shooting, have fun and be safe.

The beaches here are beautiful and the water is clear and blue.  Rated one of the top beaches in Florida, we can definitely see why. While we were there the lighthouse was closed off but they do offer tours of it. Not quite sure if you can go in and climb to the top of it or not but man would that be an amazing view overlooking Key Biscayne. There’s no typical camping at this State Park but boats are allowed to anchor overnight in the harbor so that’s cool. The center of the park is a paved path for pedestrians, cyclists, and skaters to enjoy. There’s also some Nature Trails if you’re interested in slowing things down a bit and enjoying nature like we like to do. Like I said we didn’t stay long maybe 15 minutes at most but next time we will definitely check out the nature trails and the lighthouse.

There’s plenty of picnic areas and benches available at the park but like we said, it gets pretty packed on the weekends so get there early if you want to claim an area for yourself. All in all there is 18 covered pavillions there so you might have a good chance of getting one even if you are a little late getting up in the morning. Also, alcohol is permitted in designated areas at the park so if you want to barbecue and drink a few brewskies, you can do it here.

A little history on the park.. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew left the park nearly treeless and because of this, the park was able to restore the native plants that grew here once upon a time. There’s plenty of wildlife to see here at Cape Florida ( Ponce De Leon named this area “Cape of Florida” back in 1513 ). The peregrine falcon, piping plover, and American crocodile often seek refuge here. ( Source: Information pamphlet from ranger station )

Well, i think that is about all we have for Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park for now until we go back. and because of only being able to stay for 15 minutes or so, we will be going back so we can take the day and enjoy it and go swimming and eat at the Lighthouse Cafe.

Until then, Happy travelling.

Like i said, we’re headed to Miami so that means we will definitely have something to write about when we get back!. We’re not quite sure where we are going to go yet while we are down there so Subscribe via Email and find out where we went as soon as the article is published. Think of it as a suprize.

We’ll be back wih plenty of new photos to share with you guys! Have a great day and Happy shooting.