Our goal for this trip was to paddle with the gators. And that is what we did.
Ruby counted 26 and Griffin counted 32 gators in the swamp during our paddling trip.
The gators were very lazy and shy. A few would swim in front of our boat then submerge themselves. Most just laid on the shore and tried to blend in.
The landscape was incredible. It looked prehistoric. Many of the same plants as in the bog in the Adirondacks like pitcher plants and yellow water lilies.
That is a gator in our path.
The park is around 400,000 acres and over 350,000 of them burned during last summer's forest fire. It was cool to see the blackened trees among the bright green spring vegetation.
This is the only other large animal we saw beside the gators. The turtles and otters keep a low profile during the spring when the gators become active.
Fortunately the bugs were not bad. Apparently the highly acidic water in the swamp and canals keep the bugs away until the very hot summers. We did see a lot of dragon flies and butterflies and even a little green lizard.
Spanish moss hanging everywhere. Not really moss though. It is a parasite. Kind of a bummer to learn that fact.
It was hot and sticky but the kids did well. They were not scared of the gators. The only alarming incident was a big spider in the canoe.
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