Wanderlust Sunday Critter Watch: Please Do Not Feed the Alligators
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| Photo: Orangejack |
Spotting wildlife is often the highlight of certain kinds of trips. In fact, some people travel specifically to see it. Maybe you've been to Tanzania to personally eyeball Africa's "Big Five" in the wild. Or maybe you've toured the Galapagos Islands by boat. If you're like me, you've mostly just seen signs along your journey that tell where wildlife might be viewed. Most of the time in my experience, it might not.
So for today's "travel" column, I made another list. Places where I actually have seen wildlife outside of a zoo. Where have you been that you saw an abundance of critters? Feel free to go wild with comments about your experiences below.
| Places for Wildlife Viewing Alpha by State | |
 | JACKRABBITS Inyo-White Mountains Deep Springs Valley, CA I have no idea why the chicken crossed the road, but I can tell you why jackrabbits in California's Inyo-White Mountains do: They outnumber cars by what must be a million to one. Okay, I'm exaggerating. A little. Jackrabbits are probably not on your list of must-see critters, but driving through Deep Springs Valley from US 93 in Nevada to Big Pine, CA at twilight is a bona fide thrill-ride through The Twilight Zone. Getting through there without hitting one of these bigger... faster... and stronger-than-you-think animals is like a live-action video game. Photo: Wolfpix |
| TIDE POOLS Cabrillo National Monument San Diego, CA Humans are fascinated with the idea of space aliens, but really we should look to the sea for the really crazy-looking creatures. I've never been to a tide pool that didn't make me wide-eyed with wonder. San Diego is home to the Cabrillo Tide Pools, which is my favorite place to anemone watch yet. Keep on up the hill to the lighthouse if you head that way — best view of the skyline downtown. Photo: National Park Service |  |
 | ELK Rocky Mountain National Park Estes Park, CO My friend Ronni took me to Rocky Mountain NP once when I visited her in Denver. We didn't see a single animal inside the park besides other hairless apes like ourselves. But as we were leaving, we saw a whole bunch of elk standing around in the gateway town of Estes Park. Seemed like a really cool little town — I guess they just commuted in for a little nightlife. Photo: SigmaEye |
| ALLIGATORS Everglades National Park Everglades, FL I was on a nature walk once when I lived in Louisiana, and came across a sign that read, "Please Do Not Feed the Alligators." Thankfully, I hadn't seen any to feed, and I did not, repeat, DID NOT, stick around to find any. For the life of me, I can't explain why I didn't have that same turn-and-run reaction in the Florida Everglades. I guess because I trust the National Park Service who built the trail. My friend Roxanne and I walked the length of it like bait on legs. What we saw was the stuff of nightmares. Gators were everywhere piled on top of each other in some places like scrapped tires. We must have seen several hundred of them on a half-mile or so trail. I've seen them again and again in several restless sleeps since. Photo: TheWordWire |  |
 | SEA LIONS Sea Lion Caves Florence, OR From La Jolla, CA's Seal Beach and Pier 39 in San Francisco to plenty of points north along the Pacific Coast, places for seal and sea lion sightings are relatively easy to find. But in Florence, OR there is a sea cave. In fact, it's the largest of its kind in the world. The length of a football field, and depth of a 12-story building, this neat place is home to an estimated 200 sea lions. And all kinds of birds. Photo: OregonTravelCenter.com |
| GRIZZLY BEAR North Cascades National Park Marblemount, WA I've limited this column, for the most part, to highlighting places where I've seen multiples of some kind of animal. Come on — One coyote sighting does not for an interesting post make. However, I make an exception in the case where one in-the-wild sighting is one more than you ever wanted: The grizzly bear that you hope to never see. Rufus and I spotted a grizzly in the North Cascades of Washington from the relative safety of the car. We were very glad to have seen him lumbering in the middle of the road after we'd already gotten a good night's sleep and packed up our camping gear. If you plan to be outdoorsy in places that grizzly bears call home, please, please, please don't be dumb. Best to do some homework before you go. Photo: Peter MacDonald |  |
 | BUFFALO Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone, WY Yellowstone is another one of those places I hope everyone gets to see in their lifetime. In my opinion, the geysers and mud pots and other geothermal features are the highlight. But I've also seen more wildlife there than just about anywhere else I've visited. No doubt, Yellowstone is where the buffalo roam. This photo was taken along the trail at Old Faithful. Photo: TheWordWire |
Posted by TheWordWire at 7/19/2009 11:01 AM 
Categories: Life Skills,Wanderlust
Tags: Yellowstone North Cascades NP Old Faithful Big Pine CA Cabrillo National Monument Everglades Estes Park CO Sea Lion Caves Florence OR wildlife viewing Rocky Mountain NP
Categories: Life Skills,Wanderlust
Tags: Yellowstone North Cascades NP Old Faithful Big Pine CA Cabrillo National Monument Everglades Estes Park CO Sea Lion Caves Florence OR wildlife viewing Rocky Mountain NP
Wildlife viewing and prison = Zoo.
That's the only place I've ever seen any animals that aren't pets. I'm ok with that.
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