Saturday, January 23, 2010

Saturday at Sheldon Lake Park

Our neighborhood is surrounded by beautiful nature reserves and parks.  This afternoon we drove a short distance to explore Sheldon Lake Park where acres of untouched marsh and swamplands as well as nature paths and a variety of wildlife live (including alligators).  I brought along the camera hoping to capture an image of a swamp-swimming gator.  As we entered the park we found this sign which reminded us to "Be Alligator Wise!"


Brian gives a brief tutorial on what species we might encounter on our nature walk.

Paths led us along our way.  We came to a fork and chose the "the one less traveled by."


Caroline is eager to see an armadillo.  I'm keeping an eye out for alligators.

Nathan hears a little rustling and takes a closer look, could it be a gator?

No such luck.  However, he finds shells which seem to satisfy him...

...and wild mushrooms

...and a Texas-size ant hill.

Our path led us to a landmark: "The Bent Pinetree"

Maren is fascinated with the variety of leaves

Caroline enjoys walking next to her big sister, gathering sticks and leaves along the way.

We enjoyed our nature walk and were impressed with the wide range of vegetation and wildlife. However, to our disappointment, there were no alligators.    

8 comments:

Renee said...

What a pleasant day for spending time at a nature preserve. I especially liked the prize-winning photograph of the wild mushrooms and the kids posing along side the bent pine tree.
I am personally grateful you didn't meet up with any alligators!

Cherise said...

Looks like so much fun! Caroline looks so cute standing next to Maren.

Erin said...

What a great day, I wish the sun would have been out that day. Sheldon park is a beautiful place.

Amber said...

If you're ever up for a bit of a drive (90 minutes ish), you can try to see alligators at Brazos Bend state park--I've seen them there and there are LOTS of them! But they have to be in the right mood to show themselves. We'll have to check out Sheldon Lake someday--I'm glad to know there's a closer alternative!

Sheralie said...

We love that park! We usually saw the large alligators near the front two ponds. And small alligators near the pond by the parking lot at the back. If you try again, reptiles are easiest to find on days with enough sunlight to "wake them up" :) But maybe you can be glad you didn't see them. Once Laird saw an enormous alligator there and started running toward it and fortunately I caught him first!

Jennifer said...

We love sheldon park. So glad you had a free Saturday to enjoy a relaxing time as a family.

Michelle Beus said...

What a fun afternoon. You live in such a beautiful area. I'm not sure what I would have done if I would have seen a gator. It looks like there were plenty of other adverntures outside of finding human eating animals! :0) Some days I feel a bit like that tweeked tree.

Unknown said...

Ditto to the earlier comment, if its gators you want go to Brazos Bend State Park. Trust me. They're there. Tons of 'em! You don't really even need to go looking. They find you! There's also a nature center where you can pet some baby gators. It's a fun park. Just keep an eye on the kiddos! :)