5/18/07 Visiting Alligator River

It was a cloudy, breezy day. We decided to make a side trip to the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge on the North Carolina mainland. On the way north on Hatteras Island, we passed some houses that had big sand drifts in their front yards. There had been a coastal storm a week or so before we arrived and it had blown a lot of sand from the beach across the island in this area. All of the houses on the island are raised on stilts for protection against flooding from hurricanes.
Must have been quite a job to plow out the driveway for this home.


There was a very nice nature trail at the Alligator River Nature Center. The trail went through a swampy area and was all on boardwalk. One of the first things we noticed were the Bald Cypress trees, which we had never seen before. These trees have "knees" that come up from their roots and stick up out of the water.

There were some beauiful flowers along the trail. This is a Yellow Iris.

This one is a Blue Iris.

These beautiful bell-shaped flowers were on long stems that came from vines that climbed the bushes. The leaves on the vines and the vines themselves looked like a type of Clematis.

A portion of the trail went along the side of a small pond or stream, with a lot of Duckweed floating on the surface. It looked like the water was slowly flowing, carrying the Duckweed and some of the floating plants along with it.

There were also some ferns with pretty brown seed heads growing alongside the trail.