Canopy Walkway Trail

The Canopy Walkway Trail at Myakka River State Park features one of only two publicly accessible canopy walkways in the United States. The 100-foot suspension bridge hangs 25 feet above the forest floor in a dense oak-palm hammock along the Myakka River, swaying gently as visitors traverse it. A 74-foot observation tower at the end of the bridge lifts visitors an additional 40 feet, providing panoramic views across the river floodplain, Upper Myakka Lake, and the surrounding prairie.

The canopy vantage reveals a hidden world: bromeliads and resurrection ferns drape every horizontal branch, and the upper canopy hosts nesting osprey, red-shouldered hawks, and barred owls. Swallow-tailed kites feed through the canopy at eye level during spring migration. Below the bridge, river otters and alligators patrol the shoreline. The walkway was constructed in 1997 from recycled materials and has a 250-pound per-person weight limit; groups of four maximum are allowed on the bridge simultaneously. The loop returns along the riverbank beneath the hammock canopy, providing excellent birding for warblers and vireos.