Today was gorgeous! 70 and sunny. Just the way I like it, a perfect day for sightseeing. We drove over to the Mobile Bay to visit Fairhope. There’s a lovely beach and the Fairhope Municipal Pier with a restaurant. We also enjoyed the local city museum while we were there.

Fairhope Municipal Pier

When we finished at Fairhope we went over to Daphne AL to see if we could find some alligators. The town built a boardwalk underneath a highway bridge to allow visitors to view Daphne’s alligators in their natural habitat.

‘Gator Alley

‘Gator Alley, Daphne AL

We saw only one lone gator all by himself.

One Lone ‘Gator

Next we went over to Summerdale AL to Alligator Alley to see what they had. All of the alligators at this alligator farm are rescued and relocated from places where they were considered a nuisance. The farm is designed to give them a natural environment. They say they have over 400 alligators here now.

Alligator Alley, Summerdale AL

A protected walkway leads to an elevated viewing platform where we could see a lot of alligators, some quite large. The alligators are most active in the spring and in the fall. And since it’s cool now they are not very active. Their metabolism slows down this time of year and they don’t even eat. So we were not able to witness any of the daily feedings, since there were none.

Alligator Alley

Most of the gators we saw were just sunning themselves, not moving. But there were a few that moved. We found this one gliding smoothly across the water.

Alligator Alley

An elevated boardwalk through the swamp allows you to see more alligators in their natural environment. One of their largest alligators, Captain Crunch, is over 13 feet long.

Captain Crunch

Alligator Alley

On the way out of the farm we stopped to take a picture of these long-horn cattle (and one donkey) just because I think they’re cool.

Those are Long Horns

• Admission:  $21.70