Occurred on June 10, 2018 / Lakeland, Florida
Info from Licensor: "My husband and I were hiking at Circle B Bar Reserve and we saw a large alligator swimming in a pond to the side of the path and stopped to watch it when the alligator started swimming up to the bank. We decided to keep walking because he was too close for comfort, but a few photographers in the area were walking by and said he was probably trying to cross over to the other pond on the other side of the path and if we stuck around we would get to see him walk by so we walked back a safe distance and he decided to come up out of the water. Just like the photographers, who I'm sure frequent the park often, suggested he walked by. I have lived in Florida my entire life. Seeing alligators is nothing new, but usually, they aren't quite this size, this close, or up out of the water. It was a very cool thing to see."
