Florida! - Gator Hunting

We went alligator hunting while we were in Florida. We couldn't resist!

At the edge of the Everglades, there's a beautiful preserve called Grassy Waters, which was our hunting ground. We were hoping to spot a couple wild gators. Of course, we don't hunt with guns, but with our eyes... and cameras!

The alligators have a beautiful home.

We didn't see any gators in the marsh near the trail head, so we ventured along the wooden pathways further into the wetlands.

Our alligator hunting crew... ready to find wild gators!

Safe to say, we had no plans to "molest" any gators!

There was a lovely little learning annex not too far down the trail where Jacob spotted his first gator.

Sure, never smile at a crocodile, but you can grin at a gator all day long!

Although the real alligators were pretty elusive, there were still many interesting things to see along the trail.

Top Left: There were some spectacular spider webs to see.
Top Middle: The green lizards are the only ones native to Florida. Unfortunately, they're being overrun by all the other lizards, which are descended from pets that were let loose in the Everglades.
Top Right: Little Dude loved seeing all the dragonflies! They were everywhere!
Bottom Left: It was fun watching the Anhinga (a.k.a. American Darter) dive under the water to catch fish.
Bottom Right: Flying crane.

Left: The boardwalk where we finally caught sight of our prey!
Top Right: They are trying to breed more apple snails like this one, which is important to the ecosystem.
Bottom Right: A non-native lizard sunning himself.

So did we finally get to see a wild gator? I'll tell you in my next post!