Meaher State Park, Spanish Fort, Alabama
You hear about the ‘luck of the Irish’, but I don’t know for certain if it’s supposed to be good luck or bad luck.
Today was good! Probably because I donned the only long-sleeved green shirt I own and Blaine wore a gray one with a green emblem. 😊
They had forecast rain starting around noon, but we never saw a drop all day! In fact, it was beautiful! Started off cloudy, but eventually the sun came out.
There’s a free State-owned and maintained park right across the 4-lane road from our campground called the 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center. It’s situated where the Mobile, Spanish, Tensaw, Apalachee and Blakely rivers all flow into Mobile Bay. Our campground is on one side of the Bay (near the Blakely River), the city of Mobile sits on the other. If you look on a map, you’ll see where all the rivers come into the top of the Bay.
Today we went to check it out and see about kayaking.
It really is a well-cared-for beautiful facility and the one staff person we saw was very helpful.
As we were setting up the kayak, preparing to go exploring, a guy who works for the tour boat company on the grounds told us where to go – “It’s bee-U-ti-ful! There’s quite a bit of wildlife and you may see some baby gators.”
Sounds good. Off we went. If he hadn’t told us how to find Alligator Creek, we never would have. But he was right. Sort of.
There were two pelicans we decided to harass in an effort to take their picture.
They didn’t stick around.
Just as we arrived at the turn, we spotted a gator on shore right in front of us. Let me tell you, it weren’t no baby! And just as I whipped out my phone to capture a picture, it took off into the water straight for us, making a huge splash when his tail whacked the water! Let that be a warning to you! Stay away!
See that land right in front of us?
That’s where the alligator was laying.
Smile for the camera!
Or not.
It all happened so fast! YIKES!
You don’t have to tell us twice! Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the viewer for watching the gator and he wasn’t centered at all. I’m lucky to have gotten anything at all! 😊
The rest of our tour was much less dramatic. Whew!
We saw osprey, pelicans (again), and the aforementioned baby gators.
Two osprey in the tree tops
When one took flight, we saw that it had something in its talons!
Looked like a mouse (or something similar) to us.
Different osprey. This one has a fish!
Here’s what it looked like to us! Just not quite as close up, but better than our picture.
There’s those pelicans again!
They allowed us a bit closer this time.
We also discovered the camping area which was also really nice!
Doesn’t look like this gets used much, but we got there – – carefully!
These are the camping “houses”. Large open rooms with screens all around and a shower curtain in a corner. Blaine said most likely you put a portable outhouse behind it.
There certainly wasn’t anyplace else around. Ewww!
We even ate lunch there with a baby gator watching us as we watched it swimming around and eating – something – for lunch, too.
Lunchtime!
This is the baby we watched as it watched us.
I tried to get Blaine to give up his beef log slices, but he refused.
Time to head back.
View of Justin’s Bay
The Nature Museum
All in all, we kayaked about 3.5 miles.
After we returned and packed up, we went to check out their Nature Center. Filled with live and taxidermied as well as a few “hand-crafted” critters, it too was a really nice building and everything seemed well cared for. There wasn’t another soul around – staff or otherwise, until we were ready to leave and a maintenance man walked through.
This is the man the Center is named after.
William Bartram.
I don’t know if you’ll be able to read it, but essentially it says that he wrote a book about his 5-year travels from 1773-78. His journal is considered one of the most important documents of the Revolutionary period and the first book of Alabama history.
WARNING!! ALERT!!! BEWARE!! This next section has been reserved for the various live snakes they had. I think they’re beautiful! And sooo fascinating to watch, as these were all quite active today!
This one’s shedding it’s skin!
There was a large tarantula housed here as well, but it’s hard to take a picture when you refuse to look at it.
Here’s some other pictures you may enjoy more:
Finally! Some bears that aren’t under glass!
I love this one!
We thought this was really nice!
Yes, it’s real! So much more beautiful than the ones we see in the wild! Not sure why . . .
It certainly has it’s preferences though. It kept hissing whenever Blaine was near, but didn’t seem to mind if it was just me.
Must be a good judge of character! ; )
Blue crab
Looks good enough to eat! : )
This one’s just a cub. : (
I received one of these for my birthday one year.
Had to go on a very long scavanger hunt to find it, as I recall. I was not happy with the “treasure” I found at the end! Good memory, though!
And yes, these are alive
This is a live American Kestrel
Live Screech Owl
There was a large beautiful theater there, but with no one around, we didn’t know what it was for. Later, we learned they have educational films and all you have to do is ask someone to run one for you. That’s hard to do when no one is around. 😊
Outside the Nature Center
They have 1.5 miles of hiking, and we did that too.
This is a conference building. Someone was preparing to use it.
Dinner tonight was Chinese take-out. We haven’t done that in a really long time! We found it better than Lucky Star back home. Couldn’t really tell you why, it just was. Maybe because it’s been so long?
After dinner, we experienced a ‘transient sunset’. We kept moving from place to place in the campground to watch. What? Why couldn’t we stay put? We just had Chinese for dinner. That demands some walking!
And right in the middle of it all, as we were standing at the end of the pier, fish (mullet) were leaping out of the water! A lot of them, and they were leaping high and far! Unfortunately, they’re also camera shy. Every time I raised my arms to video, they stopped. All I have is one, despite multiple attempts . . .
This looks more like a watercolor painting. : )
TOTAL HIKING MILES: 3
Year To Date: 209.5
Daily Average: 2.75