Jonathan Dickenson State Park

Wednesday Valerie and I went to the Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter Florida (the title of this post is a link). Right in the middle of a bunch of big beachfront hotels is this very rural park. It starts at the beach and runs several miles up the Loxahatchee River. The river goes up thru mangrove marshes and has several small creeks that lead into it.

We rented a tandem kayak and went up the river and into some of the small creeks. We saw lots of birds, jumping fish, mangroves, aquatic plants, orchids and spanish moss. And, yes, we did see an aligator. As we paddled up Kitchen Creek we reached a fork in the water. I started to go up the branch on the left but as we got near the fork Valerie asked: "Is that what I think it is?" A twelve foot gator was sunning on the point about 15 feet from us. I said: "Yes it is, this is Florida, after all." The gator slid into the water and we could see the trail of bubbles coming our way. Valerie suggested we turn around but I would have none of it. She did not think it funny when I rocked the boat and really was afraid. I told her that we had passed several gators in the water already and that none had eaten us yet. Eventually she calmed down and we continued up the creek. We saw other of the dinosaurs with stubby legs but none were as large as that guy. She had the camera but never got a shot of one of them. I dunno what kept her from shooting them with the digital, maybe it was the fact that she paddled so fast whenever she saw one.

She did get LOTS of pics of birds, plams, mangroves and orchids though. The birss let us get within a few feet of them as they hunted in the mangroves. Here is a sample of some of them. Ask her and she will be glad to show you more.