sharon6165

I love visiting Brazos Bend State Park. I live in Houston, and it is an easy and lovely drive to the park.

My last visit was in late July of this year. I took my ten year old son and one of his buddies to fish. We stopped in Rosharron at a feed store to buy night crawlers--cool! When we arrived at the park, we pulled into the first parking lot by the nearest lake. There were two alligators floating around the lake. The larger of the two came over and kept us company most of the time we were there. It was unbelievably hot, but the kids didn't seem to mind. A little later, our alligator friend started to swim closer to the other gator who stuck close by the bank. When she realized he was approaching, she began to roar--I had never heard such. We later found out that she was guarding her nest. A naturalist had come by as we were leaving and pointed out the nest which looked like nothing more than a mound of sticks. He had been coming by each day to see if the babies had hatched. They were due to hatch any day...you can tell they've hatched because the mound is destroyed as the babies emerge from the mound. The boys didn't get a bite, but they loved the exerise of going through the motions of fishing and of course all the drama we were privileged to witness.

But that was only the beginning. When they got bored with fishing, I suggested we take a little hike around the lake over to the lookout tower. As we walked, the skies quickly clouded up and before we knew it we were ducking into the lookout tower to escape a thunderstorm. It rained for a good 45 minutes, and we got soaked to the bone because the rain blew in sideways, first from one direction and then another. When it let up enough for us to begin a soggy walk back to the car, we set out back the way we came. We were walking along, laughing and talking, when suddenly we froze. Off to our right side, just off the path , rose an enormous alligator out of the tall grass. He turned his large head our direction. I told the boys to stay still, that we would wait til he decided where he was going. This big guy couldn't have been more than fifteen feet ahead of us. The stand off lasted about five minutes, our collective anxiety levels rising along with sheer fascination. Then, he casually walked into the water and swam away. We hastened our steps toward the car. I was feeling very vulnerable there virtually alone (it was mid week and there weren't many guests at the park).
Before we made it to the car another alligator, half the size of the first, ran across the path just ahead of us. I guess the rain stirred 'em up?

We were getting hungry by this time, so we loaded up in the car and began driving out. As we exited the park, we noticed a small herd of deer grazing in a grassy field. We watched them for ten minutes or so...these city kids don't get enough of this!!! We were a smelly mess of sweat and rain...but we had good memories to talk over our meal at the Manvel Sonic. (Note to self: ALWAYS bring towels...wherever you're going!)

Don't hesitate to go to Brazos Bend. You must respect the gators, keep your distance, but they are used to people being around. I LOVED our close encounter!