Some­times I get to trav­el for work, and then some­times I have time off when I trav­el for work. This par­tic­u­lar trip I was work­ing in Hol­ly­wood Flori­da, out­side Miami.

Great Blue Heron, Ever­glades Nation­al Park

It had been just over a week since I had come back from Detroit work­ing on a film, when I flew out to Mia­mi. Warm mug­gy days in sharp con­trast to sub-freez­ing nights and snow. Work was over and my flight was­n’t until 8:30pm so I drove to the Ever­glades.  First stop was Shark Val­ley where I rent­ed a bike and took it on the 15 mile loop to the Shark Val­ley Obser­va­to­ry Tow­er and back. Tur­tles birds and a few shy gators greet­ed me on the way out.

Flori­da red-bel­lied cooter

“There prob­a­bly won’t be many alli­ga­tors active today” one of the rangers at the vis­i­tors cen­ter told me ear­li­er. “It’s still a bit warm out for them” It seems they have sen­si­tive skin (who knew) and can’t sit out in the sun on hot days for too long. Yet I tried to remain hope­ful, that I might see a big one on the side of the road/bike path.

The loop is pret­ty flat as most things are in Flori­da, although one yelp review­er com­ment­ed that it was chal­leng­ing on the way back due to 85 feet of gain over 7 miles. I imag­ine he isn’t a peak-bag­ger (one who hikes/climbs moun­tains to sum­mit as many peaks as possible).

Bik­ing the flat Shark Val­ley Loop

Even­tu­al­ly I saw a few peo­ple stopped on their bikes look­ing at some­thing so I too stopped to take a look. I hate being “that guy” but hey I was look­ing for gators as well. I end­ed up see­ing a few on the way out to the Obser­va­tion Tow­er between 2 heavy yet short-lived downpours.

Baby Amer­i­can Alligator

The first gator I saw (above). And then anoth­er (below). These were small (maybe 3–4 feet with the tail).

Juve­nile Amer­i­can Alligator

Shark Val­ley Obser­va­to­ry Tower

After 7 miles of bik­ing I arrived at the obser­va­tion tow­er. (Prob­a­bly the high­est point in the Ever­glades. I mean it’s prac­ti­cal­ly peak-bagging).

And then while bik­ing back it hap­pened. I came across a big ole gator, parked right there on the side of the road, sit­tin’ there mind­ing his own gator business.

Big Gator on the side of the road

Click­ing off a few pic­tures he just sat there and stared, not mov­ing a mus­cle. But I’ve seen too many nature doc­u­men­taries of the seem­ing­ly docile alli­ga­tor or croc­o­dile snap­ping to life with light­ning reflexes…it nev­er ends well for the wilde­beest. No gator self­ies today.

Gator full body view

Final­ly, after return­ing the bike I set out to check out the short but very wet Otter Cave Ham­mock Trail. The “trail” was pret­ty much a water­way, but what did it mat­ter, I had been soaked 4 times so far from the rain. I just hoped none of those gators want­ed to explore the trail while I’m pranc­ing through the water.

Otter Cave Ham­mock Trail

A short video of the trail:

Great Egret