Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve
The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is located in Fort Myers, Florida. I had to look up the definition of slough which is prounounced "slew" and found that it is "a place of deep mud or mire." That sounds like fun! OK, let's go!
The slough has over 2.5 miles of boardwalk.
Yellow Rat Snake - a very, very long snake
This is a Southern Florida Yellow Rat Snake. Totally freaked out by how long this snake was. You can see its tail down in the lower right corner of the picture. I hate snakes.
Surreally beautiful.
We found just one alligator in the slough. One was enough :-)
Cypress knees are protrusions from the roots of a cypress tree.
If you look closely, you'll see a turtle just hanging out.
Red bromeliads growing attached to the tree trunk.
Yep, there are feral pigs living in the slough
We stood on the boardwalk for quite a while watching the feral pigs. Feral pigs are actually a big nuisance in the slough. National Geographic wrote about the problem back in 2006 stating that during flooding season in the slough, the feral pigs seek drier ground in nearby neighborhoods. Definitely not good news for nearby homeowners since the pigs can destroy a lawn by rooting resulting in potentially thousands of dollars of damage.
White Ibises wading in the shallow water.