We arrived at the Everglades at a little past one, stopping for a lunch of alligator at a roadside cafe that had four and a half stars on Trip Advisor. One bite and we realized why. Much to my surprise, though the Girl ordered shrimp, she was quite eager to try the gator.
“Tasty, but too hard to chew,” she said.
The plan for the day: hit the national park as hard as possible for the last half of the day. The ranger had told us in the visitor center to leave the first walking path for last as that was where we would most likely find gators. We made it through several paths, including one that wound through the last few pines in the Everglades and one that highlighted an enormous mahogany tree. We saw gars and egrets, giant grasshoppers and snakes, but we still hadn’t managed to see what we were all hoping to see: an alligator in the wild.
We made it to the very last stop on the road, Flamingo Visitor Center and marina at the Florida Bay. The center had been ravaged by Hurricane Irma to the point that the national park service has decided to tear down the old center, dating likely from the late fifties or early sixties, and build entirely new facilities. We wandered around, saw a couple of manatees in the bay that were none too eager to do more than peek their head above the water for just moment.
By the time we made it back to Royal Palms visitor center to head up the Anhinga Trail, it was late in the afternoon, probably close to six. Early evening, I guess. We started up the trail, hoping to find some gators resting in the grasses that were along the trail when we discovered karma: a six-foot gator resting just by the trail, not moving, seemingly daring anyone to approach.
A French-speaking family stood and watched for a while until one of the daughters, seeing the size of the grasshoppers that were mating on the walkway railing and realizing just how close she was to the gator, broke down in tears and walked away, the rest of the family comforting her. She was probably around sixteen.
On the other side of the gator, a couple waited, presumably wondering whether or not to chance it. They would have approached from the tail end of the gator, so I would have thought they had the best chance of making it by without arousing the gator’s interest.
In all likelihood, any of us could have walked calmly by the animal without much danger at all. A quick glance at images Google shows from the trail indicates that it’s a common occurrence and that there are often many alligators sunbathing by the walkway. Still, with little kids in hand, there was no sense in doing anything more than admiring from a distance. After all, it’s not often one gets to see an animal that has been on the Earth for about 37 million years…