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.

While we were there we got to see the Park Ranger making fishing line out of tree bark. That was really cool. We also learned that Fort Mose Historic State Park is a popular destination place for school field trips in the area and on average get about 300 kids a day visiting the park. If you’re a teacher and would be interested in taking your class here for the day you can  Download the Teacher Handbook from the Official Florida State Parks Website. This Handbook is full of useful information about the park and the history behind it. Aside from literature there is also some quizzes for students and even some little symbols that the tribes and stuff used back then and the definitions for what the symbols represent.

If you’re into bird watching, grab your binoculars and head out here in the early mornings or late evenings before the sun sets and you might see some great egrets, blue herons, and maybe even a Sand Hill Crane or two. We were there in the afternoon and because of that we didn’t get to see much of the wildlife but it was still a great trip to a little piece of Historic Florida.

For all of you who have been waiting we apologize for the dealy in getting this post written things have been pretty hectic with work and all but we haven’t forgotten about you. On June 12th we’re headed to miami so we’ll surely find a park or two to visit while we are there. When we get down there and get settled we’ll pull up our handy dandy Florida Satate Park Locator and decide where we want to go.

Thanks for reading and if you have been here, please feel free to comment and give us your thoughts on the park as well. We’d love to hear what you have to say!

Things aren’t as sunny in Florida as they used to be these days with the economy the way that it is and everything but we’re keeping our heads up and pushing forward. Thanks to state-wide budget cuts, our trips (and yours) to Florida’s beautiful State Parks could end up costing us (and you) more. Only a few years ago the money that was available to Florida’s Historical and Cultural Grant Programs was about $50,000,000 (million). Now the money that is available to these Grant Programs is only $3,000,000. that’s 6% left (94% cut) from the original budget we had only a few years ago.

That’s a huge loss for Florida State Parks and will be reflected (if it isn’t already) here soon by rising entrance fees to some parks if not all of them. Since we’ve started this journey the Parks that we have been range from $0 to $8 (per car-load) to get into. Also we just found out from a friend that St. George Island State Park has raised it price to $16 already but this isn’t posted on the Official Florida State Parks Website so if anyone could confirm or deny this in the comments that would be great.

We also have a couple articles in the works that need to be written for Three Rivers State Park and Fort Mose Historical State Park. I developed a WordPress plug-in last weekend for us to help keep track of where we have been and which parks we have written about so this should make things a little better as well and serve as a reminder for us to get busy and write something for you guys. That’s about all we have for now but we’ll keep you posted on what happens next. If you’re not already subscribed to receive updates via email, you should sign up now and get notified when we post something new!

Unfortunately, silly me, I misplaced my card reader so we can’t post any photos of the park just yet but i’ll try and pick one up tomorrow while we’re out as well. It’s beautiful. You can see the well known lighthouse from the boardwalk that leads out to the beach right past a bunch of sailboats. it’s definitely a sight to see.

As far as facilities go, the restrooms are clean well kept. There a camping areas within the park though right now they happen to be full so plan ahead if you plan on camping here. We got there around 5pm and it wasn’t packed at all. If you are going to camp here or just plan on spending the day here you might want to think about bringing a bicycle. There’s also bicycle racks at the boardwalk for you to park your bike before heading up to the beach and there’s plenty of places to ride around.

Within the first 5 minutes out on the beach i met a guy who had found a star-fish in the tide pool and he was kind enough to let me borrow it for a couple photos in the sand. I thought that was pretty cool and I spent the next 30-45 minutes strolling the tide pool while looking for one of my own with no luck. There’s plenty of shells for the little one’s to pick up along the beach and stuff so bring a bucket and let them have at it.

We both agree that this park is definitely in our list of favorite places thus far. There’s still a long way to go and our list of favorite Florida State Parks is constantly growing as we discover more of this gorgeous state that we live in. We’ll keep you posted along the way don’t you worry.

Have fun and happy shooting (photographer jargon) and exploring Florida.

The head-spring swimming area is great for older people who can swim well but be warned there are no shallow areas for the younger ones to play in. I’m 5 foot 8 inches and i could not touch the bottom anywhere except for near the edge. there are (or were when we were there) 2 large piles of rocks under water that the kids have built so that they could swim out to and stand on and take a breather before going back to playing with their friends. We did see a couple people with their dogs at the park so I would assume that pets are allowed so long as they remain on a leash at all times.

If you dont care for diving into cold spring water and you would rather enjoy the miles of nature trails, they have some as well.  While I did not personally walk the nature trails I did however walk the paths back near the waterfalls and the butterfly garden. Do yourself a favor and make sure you bring your camera with you. The 4 waterfalls are absolutely beautiful and make for some great photo opportunities. Check out our gallery and see for yourself! Just make sure you wear shoes of some sort while walking the path to the waterfalls because they are cobblestone (i think?) paths and they will hurt your feet after walking on them for a few minutes. I really didn’t have any problem with bugs or anything while walking around but then again, Pam is the one that gives you the low down on the creepy critters so we’ll save that part of the article for her.

Rainbow Springs State Park also has a little bit of history behind it as one of the lost tourist attractions in Florida from the 1930’s up until  1973 when when it was closed. There is still some remnants of the old animal cages that were built in 1968. The animal attraction is long gone but the cages are still there to mark a little piece of the history behind the park and the state that it was once in.

Pam’s notes on creepy crawly things:  Well I actually didn’t get bit by much on this visit.  One little bitty black bug bit me but to be honest it was just about a bug bite free day!!! My daughter Ali did notice on a bench a rather LARGE spider hiding for some unsuspecting rear end to sit down!! Glad it wasn’t mine!!  We all loved this park.  Very pretty surroundings, lots of covered picnic area’s.  Lots of picnic tables.  Large grassy area to play football or frisbee on.  The people that did bring their dogs were all very courtious as far as we saw and the weather (of course) was awesome!! Do your family a favor and bring them here!!