Jelks Preserve is a wildnerness park located in Venice, FL.

Address:      2300 North River Road, Venice, FL 34293
Directions     It's located on the same side of River Road as Snook Haven between Center Road and Venice Avenue.

Jody, Little Van, and I took a hike in Jelks Preserve on 11/26/06.  It's a simple park.  There aren't any restrooms.  It's just a few miles of trails cut through the woods.  Some of the trails lead to the edge of the Myakka River.  That's just what we like!  It's maintained by Sarasota County, who provided a couple of picnic benches near the edge of the river.

We didn't see the scrub jays or tortoises that are supposed to live in there.  However, we saw several hawks, several wading birds, a black snake, an armadillo, lots of buzzards, etc.  These are all "standard fare" for southwest Florida, and aren't too exciting. 

However, we were startled when a large wild hog ran across the trail about 20 feet in front of us and was followed by 6 to 8 "teenage" hogs.  That was really cool!  Some were black and some were reddish.  Unfortunately, they were moving too quickly for either of us to get a picture.  However, we did get a couple of close shots of the armadillo, and some scenery shots.  See the photo gallery below.

To see a slide show of all of the photos, use the following procedure:

1. Hold your mouse pointer over one of the photos.
2. A menu will automatically appear.
3. Click on the "slideshow" menu option.

"Hey Van, how come there aren't any pictures with your pretty wife, Jody?"  I got some pictures of the hike with her in them.  However, in typical female fashion, she doesn't like the way any of them look.  So I didn't post any of them to maintain peace in the household.  Now you can clearly see some shots of me showing my gut to be the size of a small keg (Hmmm... I'm partial to full-bodied beer.  Coincidence?), but I don't complain.  Then again, I'm a guy!