Brazos Bend SP - Jan 2006

The very first thing that we saw upon arrival at Brazos Bend State Park was the huge sign saying "CAUTION — ALLIGATORS. DO NOT FEED OR APPROACH. STAY AT A DISTANCE." Yikes, just what kind of place had we picked to spend a few days? Actually, we chose this park to stay at because it was close to the breeder where my parents were picking up their new puppy. Luckily, the alligators hung out quite a ways from the campground so we didn't have to worry about the dogs becoming alligator appetizers.

The park is about 30 miles southwest of Houston and follows a bend of the Brazos River. The climate is aparently just right for an alligator hang out, so the park has two very large ponds where the park's gator residents call home.

The park was actually pretty large and the camping loops were away from the alligator ponds. One day we (everyone except Mom who didn't care if she ever saw an alligator up close and personal) drove over and hiked all around the alligator preserve area. We were careful to stay on the very wide trail and paid special attention to all the warning signs not to approach the gators or come within 30' of them.

We cautiously hiked for about 20 minutes before we saw our first gator -- two actually -- both were on the far side of pond and were lazing in the sun looking pretty harmless. Feeling a little more confident that we weren't going to be attacked, we continued on down the trail still carefully staying on the far side and away from the gator pond.

A little farther down, we encountered a big guy on our side of the pond and he sure got bigger the closer we got to him. As we passed by him, we kept a close eye on him and gave him a very wide berth. The most he ever did was open his mouth and flash us a big, toothy grin that showed off his impressive fangs. Thank goodness for the zoom lens on my camera -- I wasn't about to get any closer to get a good shot.