Tuesday December 28th 2021

The great weather and the crowds vising the park continue. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties. Today also appeared to be the busiest day for visitors to the park since I arrived eleven days ago.

Most of the parking lots were overflowing. A steady flow of slow moving cars paraded along the main park road. The down side is that many of the extra visitors weren’t knowledgeable of basic park etiquette and safety concerns. There were people everywhere. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t a trail in the area. Somehow people found a way to get into some “interesting” places. In many cases they took advantage of the low water level and walked along the exposed river bank. The people were walking in areas that normally were home to sun bathing alligators and feeding birds. Walking along the side of the river in alligator country one might get surprised by a gator lurking just under the water’s surface. In most cases adult size people are safe, but little dogs and children maybe not.

I had to venture much further from the main road to find gators and birds today. All of the wandering people kept them from the easier viewing areas. Most of the people on the longer trails know how to interact with nature in harmony. I didn’t get any noteworthy pictures today, but some of the birds were nicely photogenic. Here are today’s best pictures.