Myakka River Outpost Canoe Rentals

The Myakka River State Park is a beautiful park. Great to take a hike and see some great Florida natural wildlife.
There are tons of great things to do at this park from biking, scenic drives, fishing, boat tours, to nature walks its all here, oh and of course the canoe rentals.
I’m going to talk about what I did at this park, as I will never forget my experience. Visiting from California all I wanted to see in Florida was some freak-​en gators, and not the college football team. No, I wanted to see those over-​sized lizards with teeth as big as my pinkie finger. So, what better way to get up close and personal then to take a canoe and go out in gator infested waters? It sounded like a great idea at the time.
We rented a Canoe from the Myakka Outpost. There was an awesome old lady who rented out our gear. My cousin who was a little skeptical asked about the dangers of the gators. The lady quoted «our gators are friendly,» as we signed our incident wavers.
It was three brave souls entering some dangerous waters. We hit the canoe and right before take off, my cousin bails out, now just two brave souls. We take off and if you don’t know canoes are not the most stable water vehicle around. You really have to concentrate on not tipping over, and trust me you do not want to tip over.
We get out about a hundred yards out and «splash» a big ass gators jumps right in front of the canoe. The surface area of the splash was a large as the canoe… not cool!
The rest of the canoe ride was tense and scary as every little movement in the water freaked us out. No wonder we were the only ones out on a canoe, and no wonder there were people watching us like an accident on the side of the freeway.
All in all the canoe ride was a moment to remember. I’m glad I did it but you wont find me in a canoe again, well, at least not in gator infested waters.
If you’re a trill seeker go rent a canoe and jump in these waters… I dare you son!