On Memorial Day weekend, park visitors forget the pandemic blues in the wildflower yellows

It’s all you see in the headlines: the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The virus has meant tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. alone, and brought the nation’s economy, and life as most people know it, to a grinding halt.

It may be hard to find any silver linings in such a gloom.

But some are taking the extra down time as a chance to reconnect with nature.

In March, a survey by research company CivicScience found that 43 percent of Americans were planning to participate in more outdoor activities because of the coronavirus and social distancing rules.

In Manatee and Sarasota counties, open parks indeed proved to be a solace for locals throughout local and statewide lockdowns.

However, one of the area’s oldest and most famous nature havens, Myakka River State Park, was closed, along with the rest of the state parks system.

Myakka reopened on May 3. It was just in time for the commencement of rainy season, and with the rains came one of the park’s most treasured sights: the unfurling of thousands upon thousands of blooms of Florida’s state wildflower, coreopsis.

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, cars and cyclists streamed into the state park and headed for the main attraction. Families, couples and friends stopped alongside the roadway overlooking Big Flats Marsh and its bounty of flowers to snap photos and take in the display, ample social distancing in place.

Fewer in number than the flowers, but just as noticeable, were smiles.

The large bloom usually lasts for two to three weeks, according to the state parks department, so there’s still time to see it.

Details: Open 8 a.m. until sunset every day. Myakka River State Park, 13208 S.R. 72, Sarasota.

Info: 941-361-6511.

This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 4:18 PM.