Day 7- La Chua trail and Lake Alice

June 21, 2009

Since it was Sunday we took it easy and went to church with Brad and Camille. We napped a little and relaxed in the afternoon while it cooled down and went out to see some nature in the evening. The first stop was La Chua trail. One of my "must see" list items for Florida was a real alligator. I've seen plenty of alligators in the zoo, but I wanted to see an alligator on it's turf- out doing it's thing. We were told that we MIGHT be able to see one on this trail, and when we showed it we had 20 minutes before the park gate would close and lock us in. After a short walk down the boardwalk on the banks of a swamp, we were having no luck and I tried not to get my hopes up too much, until Daniel and Brad started calling from up ahead that they had found one. Pretty soon the trail took us off the safety of the boardwalk and out into the bushes where I'm sure some alligators were hiding! BUT, I HAD to see one so we continued onward. It was a really creepy feeling watching the alligators swim around in the water. At one point we were standing on the ledge a couple feet above the water and looking over the weeds that were blocking out view, to the other side where a coupel alligators were laying in the shade of the weeds. It suddenly occured to us that if they were lyeing over on the other side, there were probably a few right underneath us!

There was a lookout point a little bit ahead (through more scary bushes) and we were running really low on time. Daniel and Brad took the kids back to the car while Camille and I trudged forward to see if there were anymore. We saw three close together- so close in fact that as I held my camera up to catch a picture, one bumped into another and one jumped up into the air snapping it's mouth closed. It wasn't really close enough that we needed to worry about him getting up (and we were back on a boardwalk at this point), but it scared me so bad I jumped back and dropped my camera back to my waist and missed a great photo op. SO I hope you enjoy the pictures that could have costed me an arm or leg to get :)

This is the swampy area by the La Chua trail. This was the beginning, before we saw any alligators but this is how the swamp looked pretty much all the way around.




These next pictures were sent to me by Camille. I hate being in pictures, but these are some of the few I have on me in them for the trip- so thanks Camille.

Here we all are (except Brad) in front of the swamp.

This is when Camille and I ventured up the trail to find more alligators. (The bump in the background is an alligator.) By the way see my cute earrings? Kaitlyn made those for me.

Here I am in front of the swamp- a little freaked out that an alligator could be right behind me. (See the alligator on the banks of the other side.)



and a couple of the alligators we cought a glimpse of.

After we ran out of there (since we were out of time and didn't want to be locked in the park with the alligators), we went over to the University of Florida campus to Lake Alice. This lake was really pretty, but don't be fooled. More alligators reside here.


This picture is not cropped and I don't have my zoom lens on. He was literally that close to us. I'm pretty sure he was waiting for one of us to fall off the ledge for an easy dinner.

And here we are in front on Lake Alice. Once again the little bumps in the water are more alligators.

One more thing..... Click on this picture to enlarge it and look at my face. This wasn't from misters, and this was taken around 8:00-9:00 and I was still THAT sweaty! I'm glad to be back to the dry heat of Utah!