On the southeast edge of Gainesville, Florida, at the south end of 15th St. SE, the La Chua trail leads into the Alachua Sink within the Paynesville Prairie Basin (see the earlier post this month). From the parking lot, a paved trail soon becomes a fine boardwalk, which zigzags above vegetated shallows of the Sink.
We arrived by mid morning, hoping to observe a few alligators during our brief visit; as it turned out, we saw at least twenty, basking on the banks or gliding across the open pools. Attentive to those fickle reptiles, a host of herons and egrets lined the shores, attempting to snare fish without becoming victims themselves. To our delight, a pair of limpkins also graced the scene.
In the interest of time and due to the building heat, we did not continue along the trail which becomes an earthen path that leads out to drier areas of the prairie. Also intolerant of the rising temperature, the alligators slipped into the shallows as we retraced our route to the parking lot.
