The Alligator Park

Last weekend we went the "alligator park" (it is really called the Brazos Bend State Park). One of my childhood friends, Seth, is here in Houston for job training, so we invited him to come along. We saw about five alligators very close-up! Seth must have been our good luck charm, because the previous five times we have been, we have never seen more than one and always from quite a distance.

I know it sounds very dangerous but the 25 years that the park has been opened, there have been no injuries or deaths. The park is the swampy floodplains of the Brazos Bend River which is a perfect place for alligators. They generally avoid and are scared of humans. The water is their territory where they feel more comfortable than land. Although, they will come out and sun themselves periodically when the weather is nice-no rain, not too warm or cold. So, as long as you don't swim in their swamps and keep your distance, you will be safe.

Enough of my ramblings, here are some pictures and videos we took.

This is called a Banana Spider. During the very wet part of the year, they build HUGE webs EVERYWHERE. It comes to the point where the trails are impassable because of their webs. They are not poisonous by the way. (This is for you Melissa!)

Peter slept for a good portion of our visit, so we did not have to worry about him trying to swim out to meet the alligators. I'm serious when I say this, he really would.

We were only one or two feet from this alligator--protected by a fenced-in wood platform. He just happened to swim underneath the platform while we were on it.

This is the largest alligator we have ever seen at the park. This alligator also provided more action than any other one we have seen. Generally you will just see them lazily swimming or sunning themselves. The people before us, saw him thrashing the deer back and forth in the air. SO COOL!

This alligator posed very well for us.

Two facts that I thought were interesting about alligators:
#1 Temperature of the eggs during incubation determines the gender of the alligator.
#2 I don't remember the exact stats, but only about 1 in 6 alligators survive from hatching to adulthood. Most get eaten by other alligators and creatures.