Alligator Sunrise

As I was driving back from Destrehan on Airline Hwy this morning, I encountered an interesting event near St. Rose, LA. It was 3 a.m. and an alligator, I estimate to be approximately ten feet in length, was warming itself on the roadway.

As if that wasn't excitement enough, the alligator would rear up and snap at oncoming cars as they passed. It was quite a sight to see as people swerved their cars around him.

I pulled up next to the alligator. It was at least ten feet in length. He did not snap at me but watched me intently. I was less than 5 feet from it. I adjusted the vehicle to shine the headlights on it. The alligator was uninjured and very much alive. It just wanted to be left alone to enjoy the heat from the roadway. The 99 degree temperature yesterday must have made the roadway toasty even until 3 in the morning.

I put the emergency flashers on and flashed oncoming vehicles to warn them of the alligator. He was sprawled across both lanes of traffic. Two guys in a pickup truck came by to try to catch him. They indicated they'd done this before.

Two St. Charles Parish Sheriff vehicles arrived shortly thereafter. The deputies seemed puzzled as to what course of action to take. I left soon after they arrived but not before taking the pictures in the attached film.

Oh yeah, there's some really nice sunrise pictures too. The pictures and video of the sunrise were taken over Zephyr Stadium. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos and video as they were taken with my cell phone.