Great Tween-Season RV Trip to Venice, FL

One of the “Tween-Seasons” in south FL is just after the “Snow-Birds” depart for lands up North (around March 15th) until just before school lets out for the Summer months – the earlier the better! Weather’s great usually, good sites plentiful, and bugs are few(er).

Last week, DW and I tripped to “CampVenice Retreat”, Venice, FL which is on the Myakka River, midway between Fort Myers and Sarasota, FL on the Gulf Side. We had a level hard-sand campsite with shade trees and a back edge right on a branch of the River. We had no boat but other sites had theirs pulled up on the banks behind their RV’s, and we saw large fish (mullet?) jumping. Canoes were available for rent.

Next door is a county run recreation site that has “Tween Season” daily live bands that still play “my kind of music”, beer, and good food. We had a veggie wrap that was delicious. We also took the tour boat ride up the Myakka with commentary on the Indian, the Spanish, and the “Rich Folk” history of the local area.

DW likes butterfly gardens, so we toured three good ones in the local area. I like history, and we toured the Spanish Point site which features an archeological dig on a “mound site” that has Indian artifacts that date back about 3000 years.

Not too far northward, we visited the Myakka River State Park. It’s newest RV sites weren’t available due to work on the sites when I was making my reservations, but it’s apparently open now, and has water, electricity, and sewage hookups. Well laid-out, concrete pads, and half with shade. We will be going there during the Fall “Tween Season” for sure!

Welcome to our neighborhood! Only downside to the Venice campground is the unpaved roads. They can be very dusty in the dry season and muddy when it rains. But it's very convenient to I-75 only a mile or so away.

[countrygirl]

Sounds awesome and I would love to got there.

I have looked up the Myakka River state park before. They have a trail through the tree tops that I want to walk. It is on (I think) strung rope and wooden bridges. The photos that I have seen of it are beautiful.

Originally Posted by MisterP

Welcome to our neighborhood! Only downside to the Venice campground is the unpaved roads. They can be very dusty in the dry season and muddy when it rains. But it's very convenient to I-75 only a mile or so away.

True. I don't like unpaved roads either, but perhaps because a county-run recreation site is at the end of the road (called Snook Haven, I think), the half-mile road was well maintained. In any case, we had a heavy rain on our last night there that washed everything clean -

Originally Posted by countrygirl

Sounds awesome and I would love to got there.

I have looked up the Myakka River state park before. They have a trail through the tree tops that I want to walk. It is on (I think) strung rope and wooden bridges. The photos that I have seen of it are beautiful.

True. Like all our State Parks, you have to pay a park entrance fee to get in but it is not much. While there, we went to that bridge through the tree tops and would do it again. It does require a short hike through some soft sand parts of the trail. You then climb up several flights of stairs in a wooden tower construction to about mid tree-top level and cross over a suspension(?) bridge (we felt very little sway) to the end tower. You can then climb about the same distance again upward to well above tree top level and look forever over forested green.

Well worth it, but personally I don't think I would try the tower top level in a thunderstorm, but then again, it probably would be pretty exciting.

[countrygirl]

Ohh I want to do that!