A park is a park is a park, right? Not always, although it’s true enough that in some cases one park looks quite similarly to another: lots of trees, plants and animals, lakes and streams, hiking trails, a visitor center, and yadda yadda. But on Thursday I discovered that Myakka River State Park in Sarasota offers more than the expected.

For one thing, they boast two of the largest airboats in the world: the Myakka Maiden and the Gator Gal. Together with about 20 others, I paid the $10 fee and same for my son and fiance, and took a seat next to an open window aboard the Gator Gal. The airboat operator stood at the front of the boat behind a console, steering and regulating the speed – which moves about slowly around Upper Myakka Lake – while offering commentary over a microphone system.

The one-hour ride is definitely cool. We encountered sandhill cranes, hawks of several varieties, egrets, herons, anhingas, thrushes, warblers, turtles and alligators. Two gators lying on the river bank exceeded 11 feet, and they watched us warily as cameras clicked as the big airboat cruised nearby.

To me, the most intriguing aspect of Myakka River involves a truly unique canopy walk. Located toward the end of a one-mile nature trail, I climbed a wooden tower and moved slowly along a canopy 25 feet high in the treetops. As the 85-foot-long canopy swayed, I beheld a variety of air plants, birds and foliage that contain more diversity than biologists ever realized.

This “high frontier” terminates at a tower where I climbed to the top, providing a view from a 75-foot vantage point of the park’s prairies, hardwood hammocks, wetlands and forests. Everything’s so green and robust here. 

At the end of the seven-mile paved road from the entrance – this car trek itself offers a scenic view of old Florida with the Spanish moss-draped oaks and palm hammocks – we came upon a birder’s version of ecstasy: a boardwalk extending several hundred feet over wetlands into Upper Myakka Lake. Ducks and other water birds congregated in several flocks on the lake, and many visitors ogled them through high-powered spotting scopes and 300mm camera lenses on tripods.

You won’t run out of activities here very quickly. A one-hour narrated tram tour operates much of the year, but wasn’t running during my visit. Canoeing, kayaking, biking and 39 miles of trails await the adventurous, not to mention outstanding fishing for bass, bluegill and other panfish.

Overnighters can utilize a camping area or even rent log cabins, with plenty of picnic areas with tables and grills strewn about the park. We topped off our visit with yummy barbecue pork sandwiches and bowls of gator stew at the concession near the airboat ramp.

It costs $5 per car to enter the park, which is nine miles east of I-75 in Sarasota on SR 72 – look for the signs showing the exit on I-75. The park opens daily from 8 a.m. to sundown every day of the year. For operating times and specifics on tours, call 941-361-6511 or visit www.floridastateparks.org/myakkariver.