The Scariest State Park

Continuing from my last post, we also went with my family to one of Texas' many state park, the Brazos Bend, a.k.a. the Alligator Park. We all thought that it would be totally awesome to see an alligator in the wild. We got their as early as we could to avoid the awful heat and humidity. Do you like the signs? They got us really excited. We started in the visitors' center by petting this cute little baby alligator. Adria LOVED the snakes! (shiver) We asked the rangers what the best trail would be for a family with kids to see lots of alligators. They told us and we eagerly started our hike. We went out on a little pier about half way around the lake. There was a pretty big alligator sitting out in the middle, too far to really get a picture. So we waited a few minutes hoping to see another one. We didn't have to wait long before a 5 to 6 foot alligator popped his head up. We were delighted when he starting to come closer. You can see in this video that we didn't realize until a few minutes later that he was coming straight at us. The scared girl in the background is Heather.

The larger alligator started for us too. and that's when my mom and I realized that they were honestly going to box us in and we would have no way out. I think we freaked out my girls pretty good as we moved really really fast for several hundred yards. My brother was disappointed, he wanted to see them up close...I said, "Yeah Josh, 10 feet away was close enough for me." It wasn't until I got back home that I realized how close we had been to getting into a really bad situation. I had nightmares for the next several nights. Before we left we went to the observation tower and the bigger (safe) pier and got these cool pictures. So, just as a warning, if you want to hike around in Brazos Bend, bring your gun, or a small dog you don't like.