For our final visit to the Everglades, we decided to visit the Shark Valley Visitor’s Center.

We were a bit surprised at all the traffic prior to turning into the park access road:

but then we remembered it was President’s Day and access to the park was free for the day. We also had forgotten that Shark Valley had a hiking and biking trail so many, many people had parked along the highway and then ridden their bikes into the park:

Despite the signs and all the cars, we pulled into the park area only to be 15 cars back with no movement for 15 minutes. I finally pulled the truck out and around and we found a place on the road to park and walked into the park.
Shark Valley has a tram that runs along the 15 mile paved hiking/biking path. We decided against the tram and opted to eat lunch while we waited for our turn to rent some bikes for the trek out to the observation tower and back.

The first thing we came upon on our bike trip was my good friend, the Purple Gallinule. Just love this bird. First of all, it is amazingly beautiful and secondly, I love to watch it “walk” across the water. It is sort of beautiful and goofy at the same time.

Then we scored some more little ones when we encountered a nest full of anhinga babies. It was right by the single lane bike and tram path.


A shout out to the Metzner clan, who were forever rescuing box turtles on their travels:

And an Ansel Adams moment for me, an Everglades lily pad:

Kim and I biked the seven miles along the path, stopping and stepping aside, as instructed each time the tram came by. I have to tell you, that turned out to be more treacherous than initially anticipated when we realized that there were alligators all along the path and barely enough room between the tram, the path and the side of the water where the alligators were sleeping in the sun, to get off our bikes, much less put our feet on the ground.

We covered the 7 miles pedaling with the wind and arrived at the observation tower fairly quickly.

As we began our trek back to the visitor’s center against the wind, we saw a fairly rare Jurdeman’s Heron:

This particular Wurdemann’s Heron ran the risk of becoming even more rare considering it was perched fairly close to and completely ignoring a reasonably large alligator:

I would like to take a moment and talk about the alligators we saw on our ride. We forgot to count them at the outset but heard a 12 year old girl tell her mother that she had counted 74 gators from the Visitor’s Center to the Observation Tower. Based upon her information, we believe we saw a over 100 during our 15 mile bike ride.
This is a group who were by the walking path at the observation tower:

As we walked by them, I watched an 8 year old boy walk up and pull an alligator’s tail! No parent in sight and when they finally arrived on the scene, they seemed quite impressed at their son’s accomplishment. Within five minutes, Kim saw an adult (and I use the term loosely) do the same thing.
Disclaimer 1: Before I just completely go off (and I am going to), I would like to state that for the most part, I am a very tolerant person. I don’t like to judge people and I don’t like them to judge me. I often see people doing things I don’t agree with and before I rush to judgement, I at least TRY, to consider what they must have been thinking or what might have caused them to do something that didn’t seem right to me. As a friend of mine says, I find that whenever I judge people, it usually comes back to bite me in the *&@$*#.
So all that being said, I just have to say, “REALLY?”
I was beyond upset and angry at what I saw. Where do I begin? My first thought was to snatch that child up by the shirt and drag him out of the park. Then I settled down enough to realize, it was the parents who needed an alligator to bite them in the posterior.
Disclaimer 2: I am not, nor have I ever been a parent. I think people who have never had children can not possibly know what it is like to raise one and therefore, for the most part, should keep their child-rearing opinions to themselves.
That being said, even I, who have never raised a child, know you have to keep an eye on them and teach them to act right.
I have two very good friends who have raised two wonderful boys and I can assure you, they would have:

A. told the boys prior to entering the park to beware of the alligators and to not approach or touch them
B. taught them to treat others as well as animals and nature with respect and kindness
C. made sure to keep an eye on them to ensure they were safe

and finally, if the boys had failed to adhere to the A and B instructions listed above, they would have flipped a coin to see who was going to invite the alligator to bite each boy’s tush to teach them a lesson.
Seeing a child possibly get hurt or killed out of ignorance and/or parental indifference combined with the complete disregard and disrespect for these animals and this place just kind of really flipped me out.
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but I just had to get that out. OK, I am better now. Oh wait, one more thing:
“Please people, don’t be stupid.” OK, now I am better.
Now I would like to end on a happy note so here is one final picture of our alligator friends:

Despite the occasional rude visitor to their home, they are maxing and relaxing in the sun.