Tag: Florida

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June Adventures

The weather is getting hot. If you live here, you’re quite well aware of that fact. I recently wrote a blog post on the fun things we Floridians have to deal with as summer draws near. You can read all about that here: https://rhphotoadventures.com/2022/05/05/summertime-florida-hiking/.

Guided Hikes and Photo Walks

As the weather starts to heat up, I considered canceling all of my hikes until November, but then I decided I would miss you guys too much and I just can’t do that! So I will continue offering three hikes per month. Two of these are free, and one is paid. If more than twenty people sign up for one of the free hikes, I’ll offer two at the same location. And if more than ten sign up for a premium hike, I’ll offer two of those as well.

Baby alligator at Bird Rookery Swamp in Naples.
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What's Blooming

What’s Blooming at Myakka?

Our Premium Guided Hike for May is at Myakka River State Park. I like to prepare my hikers with a visual of what they might see on our hikes by pre-hiking our route within a week of the planned hike. This gives me an opportunity to see what’s blooming and to learn about anything I might not be aware of so I have more interesting information to share. Here’s a gallery of what I saw on my pre-hike this month.

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What's Blooming

What’s Blooming at Babcock Webb?

Spanish Needle (Bidens Alba)

It always amazes me how many different flowers are blooming each time I visit a familiar, local to me place like the Babcock Webb Wildlife Management Area. Here’s a sampling of what I saw today in just a small area of the park.

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Trail Adventures

Summertime Florida Hiking

Sun shining through Sabal palms at Myakka’s Deep Hole

It’s getting hot out there. Hiking in Florida in the summertime can be a dangerous idea if you’re not prepared. There are so many elements that seem as though they’re out to get you. It’s alligator mating season from April through June. Lovebugs abound in April and October, though they’re just annoying and not dangerous. Yellow flies start becoming super annoying around the middle of May, and their bites hurt! Mosquitos are quite wide awake now and they’ll want to have a snack on your blood when you hike in shady, damp areas. Okay, actually they’ll want to snack on you no matter where you hike in summer in Florida. Noseeums swarm and attack with their teeny tiny blood sucking mouths in any area close to the shore, particularly at dawn and dusk. We have mad thunderstorms just about every afternoon. We have truly earned the title of Lightning Capital of the World. All of that, and I haven’t even mentioned the risk of sunburn, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

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Places to Explore

Myakka State Park – Deep Hole

Deep Hole is a 141 foot deep sinkhole located just northwest of the upper Myakka Lake portion of the Myakka River. It’s easy to see the outline of Deep Hole during the dry season when the land around it is above water. During the wet season, it blends in with the Myakka River as the entire area is under water.

This is a protected area with visitors limited to just thirty per day. To visit, you need to be in line when the park opens at 8am. You’ll need to secure a permit to gain access and receive directions to the area.

When I visited, it was a hot day so the alligators weren’t as plentiful as they would be on a cool, sunny day. There were still well over fifty of them lining the shore, but sometimes there are many more than that.

Alligators at Deep Hole
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Places to Explore

O’Leno State Park and River Rise

O’Leno was Florida’s eleventh state park, established in 1940. Like many of the original state parks, it was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This park is full of history and natural beauty. Some of the best hiking trails in Florida can be found here, particularly when combined with neighboring River Rise Preserve State Park’s trails.

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Places to Explore

Hontoon Island State Park

Hontoon Island is a sweet little 1,650 acre state park located on the St. John’s River, six miles west of Deland in Florida. We visited in mid-October and had the whole place practically to ourselves. We arrived on a late Sunday afternoon. There were several families enjoying the day use area, fishing and playing on the playground. By Monday morning, the place was pretty much deserted.

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Critter Talk

Wood Storks

Wood storks are a threatened species of bird that can be found hanging out in wetlands in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  They are occasionally seen in all states along the Mississippi River and as far north as Ontario.  Mostly they stay in the Southeast though.  

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Critter Talk

Gopher Tortoises

Turtle or tortoise? If you want to get technical, all tortoises are turtles, meaning they belong to the order Testudines. However, not all turtles are tortoises. Tortoises are land animals, and they can’t swim. Though there are land turtles that are not tortoises, like wood turtles and box turtles. Are you confused yet? An easy way to tell the difference is to look at their feet. Tortoise feet look a bit like elephant feet, which is interesting because they’re called “elephantine.” That just means they’re columnar and not webbed like turtles’ back feet are. Turtles’ front feet are like flippers. Tortoises’ are not.

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Critter Talk

Sharing the Trails with Alligators

Alligator next to the trail at Bird Rookery Swamp in Naples

If you hike near water in Florida, chances are pretty good you’re going to see an alligator at some point. Those of us who are on the trails a lot are used to it, but it can be scary if you haven’t had much experience sharing the trails with these reptiles. Something that’s important to remember is that a healthy, wild alligator will most likely want nothing to do with you; so the best course of action is to just ignore them and let them go on their way. Alligator attacks in Florida are extremely rare. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission there have only been twenty-four fatal alligator attacks in Florida since 1973. Statistically, you’re more likely to be killed by a cow than you are an alligator.

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