SusieG Studio

Jarvis Creek Park

We’ve enjoyed the beautiful and mostly sunny weather here on the island and also enjoyed our adventures during the late morning and early afternoon hours. It was interesting to wake up each morning and see fog from our balcony. Some mornings it was so thick, we could barely see parts of the pond in front of our villa.

We’ve enjoyed our time at the beach and we’ve noticed how calm and quiet the water had been. We noticed there was hardly any wind at the beach. That probably explained why we had so much fog in the morning. There was hardly any breeze to move the fog off the island.

I was doing a bit of research to find a local wildlife park to visit. We were on another mission to find more alligators that lived on the island. I found a local park nearby and decided it would be a perfect way to enjoy nature a bit more before we needed to think about packing. We drove a short distance to get to Jarvis Creek Park.

This 53 acre park has a 1 mile loop trail used for walking, running, or biking. There’s an 11-acre lake stocked with Blue Gill and Largemouth Bass and lots of waterfowl and wading birds. I read that this lake started out around 30 ft deep.

As we walked and barely reached the halfway point of the loop, Hubby was quick to spot an alligator.

We continued our walk on the trail and eventually saw the alligator up close.

No need to worry as I made sure to use the handy zoom lens on my DSLR.

I was watching my step and made sure I kept a safe distance along the edge of the lake.

Hubby and I sat on a bench and watched the wildlife go by. We literally saw lots of waterfowl in the water. We also kept our eye on the sky and watched several birds fly around. We saw a large bird dive into the water and make a huge splash!

I was looking up at the sky when I heard a big splash in front of us. I thought I saw a fish. Hubby saw the fish jump out of the water and went right back in with a big splash.

We waited a few more minutes and saw another fish jump out of the water and make a big splash back into the water. I was too slow to react with my camera and not able to capture this.

I have to admit, there are times when I appreciate the “scene” more when I’m observing directly with my eyes. I miss a lot of the emotion when I’m behind my camera and looking through the viewfinder. Once the camera is in front of my face, my mind automatically turns on picture taking mode and getting the right shot.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the blue heron against the ripple of water in the background. I did not notice the water ripples until I took this picture. This turned out to be a lovely artistic surprise.

We enjoyed our wonderful and relaxing adventure. The trail was flat and we saw lots of folks jogging & walking the loop. Getting their steps in. This public park was a beautiful place to relax. Peaceful and quiet. There are well maintained facilities available and picnic areas with a lovely view.