Paynes Prairie

This past weekend we drove down to Fort Myers, FL for our baby shower. On the drive home, we stopped at Paynes Prairie in Gainesville, to have lunch and take a walk, since I can't really handle long drives anymore, "in my condition." This is one of my favorite places to go ANYWHERE, and we haven't been in a few years... partly because we are rarely in Gainesville for more than a couple hours, and partly because the last time we tried to go, it was flooded from hurricane season. Now there's a new boardwalk that will help that issue when it rains really bad, but then there's still another mile of walking past the path.

This is at the La Chua trail and the Alachua Sink in Gainesville, Florida. Chris and I counted 120 different alligators on our 1.3 mile walk (one way; we only counted on our way back from the end), including 9 brand new baby gators. There are also bison and wild horses living in the prairie, but I've never seen the bison, just the horses. You see signs of them on the trail though, in the form of nice big droppings.

We took tons of photos for those of you who have never enjoyed the fun of walking along the trail watching alligators!

BABIES! There were 9 total, but I think only 7 in this shot. That's momma in front. We could see them so well because they were on our bank, so we had to be careful not to get too close and upset the momma gator.


This one was probably the closest to us of all the gators, actually being up on our bank. But gators don't really bother people unless they're bothered first. Like if we stepped on his head or waved a chicken in front of his face, then we'd be in trouble. Otherwise, no worries.


Large gators on the opposite bank.


Lots of gators lounging at the Alachua Sink. Warm water comes up from the springs below, which is why this is such a "hot spot" for alligators.


This is what most of the trail is like; we walk along the path, and to the right is the stream with all the gators, and to the left is basically nothing. This shot is taken from the overlook at the end of the trail. Walking back from here, we counted 120 gators between the end of the trail and the beginning.


Here's the new boardwalk, at the beginning of the trail.