Up close and personal....with the aligators.

So now that I'm back home in Phoenix and have time to share some of my adventure. So the second Sunday that I was in Florida I made my way down to Everglades National Park. I enjoyed my drive through the park so much last time that I had to stop and see it. The first place that I went was one of the visitor's centers that is just off the road. This is where I got my first glimpse of an alligator.They were a lot larger than I thought that they would be. Keep in mind though that I have never seen an alligator. I had no problem looking at the alligators from above... little did I know that I would soon be closer than I ever wanted to be to the alligators. So as I continued down the road I made another stop at one entrance to the Everglades National Park. So I decided to get out of the car and take a little walk down the road. Well I didn't get very far down the path when this is what I found. Not only that but there was one of the alligators that wanted to show off. I got close enough to take a picture, but that was close enough for me. I really didn't want to be any closer. As I continued on down the road I got to the main part of the National Park. I stopped at the main visitor's center at the National Park and learned a little bit about the park from the ranger there. I didn't know that there were different sections of the National Park. There are three main sections, and the elevation change between the the three different areas is 4 feet. The pine forest is at the highest level of the National Park. But when I heard pine forest this is not what I imagined. These don't seem like pine trees to me, but they're Everglade pine trees.The other section of the National Park is more what I imagined. Boardwalks over water and grass lands. There are sections were the water is only a few inches deep and other sections where it is really deep. The last part of Everglades National Park is down on the tip of Florida. So the area is more coastal and there are keys. I was actually down at the end of the park by the time it was time for sunset. It was another beautiful sunset in Florida.Overall I'm glad that I've been able to get out and see a little bit of Florida and the alligators.