I left North Miami on a clear and cool morning for my outing to Shark Valley. I arrived prior to the gate opening. There were a few vehicles parked waiting for the gate to open. There were several people out with binocs and cameras with what looked like cannons attached to them taking pictures of the birds.
I had come to see the gators, which everyone always talks about, and to ride the 15 mile loop road on my bike.
Knowing the admission fee was half the rate for cars I left the gate area and found a legal place to park on the road berm. I off loaded my bike, got things packed up and headed back to the entrance gate, which was now open.
I paid my five bucks and peddled on in. It was shortly after 8AM on Sunday.
After orienting my self I head down the "tram road". It was quiet and I saw no one else until I approached the observation tower. The above photo shows one of numerous members of the Greeting Party.
I had seen two women on bikes getting ready to head to the tower walkway. I yelled back to them: There's a gator blocking the walkway"! They exclaimed: "Cool! Which way is his tail pointing?" My confusion must have been obvious so the explained it was OK to pass a gator if his head was pointing towards the water - in other words - away from you. Turns out these two ladies had been here many times and the gators bothered them not in the least - except for the one in the middle of the trail they wanted to take ( left side of photo ). It was facing them ( and me ) and hissed and bellowed. We decided to forget the trail and just go to the tower.
The gator lying on the walkway gave a look, raised itself up and trundled over to the waterside.