Southern Louisiana
The Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge
Season IV - Chapter 2
“Mardi Gras to Maine”
“Louisiana Leaves You in a Bayou State of Mind!”
She did for us anyway. “The Pelican State, The Child of the Mississippi, The Creole State,” these are all familiar nicknames on the 18th member of the Union; however, “The Bayou State” will always be our memory of her.
We arrived the week leading up to Fat Tuesday where every town in every Parish is celebrating. The season of Carnivale happens to be the most jubilant time of year in most of the South, but especially here. New Orleans may seem the center for parades and parties, but even the smallest communities that we traveled through showed signs of the previous night’s revelry, with confetti and beads on the streets and trees.
We happily motored in to New Orleans and St. Charles Blvd with it’s endless parades, one Krewe following another into the wee hours, then the onlookers head down to Bourbon Street to continue the festivities. We opted for the French Quarter in daylight and are we glad we did, as there is so much to see. 😳
Any direction you turn in Louisiana you will find water:
⬆️ North, ⬇️ South, ⬅️ left or ➡️ right, ↪️ below you on bridges, and held ↗️ above you by intersecting levees. Water here is abundant. Nowhere is it more apparent than the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, the world’s largest crossing, where you are likely to lose the earth’s curve. Amazing!
With this much H2O as an environment, wildlife and man alike have learned to adapt. Birds nest on the floating marshes, alligators inhabit the muddy banks, and man drifts across the surfaces in V-8 powered airboats. Our airboat trip was on Bayou Black, outside of Houma, and became our highlight. Wayne, our guide, slipped through the Cypress trees and watery channels with a mastery of the labyrinth he knew all too well. The waterscape in the Bayou is intimidating. Everywhere you look you are reminded that Mother Nature plays no favorites. A sunken boat has become a spa for a group of loons to dry their wings. A “home” that once resided on a river bank miles aways is now deposited in a channel downstream (as least for now.) Despite the rugged reality, beauty surrounds us. Once you have floated between the moss draped Cypress with their “knees” jutting up through the moving current, with an 8 foot alligator unintimidated by your presence, and a bald eagle returning with lunch for it’s young, you begin to understand.
We made the trip out to Avery Island, the home of Tabasco and it’s Jungle Garden, and spent a day crossing through the Atchafalaya Swamp, at 2201 square miles it is the largest wetland in the United States... The Louisiana Purchase was a bargain!
Tourists will continue to come here for the Gumbo and Jambalaya. They will enjoy a Beignet and Aulait at Cafe Du Monde as they have for 161 years 😋, and may continue to have their curiosity peaked and numbed on Bourbon Street, but as far as Caroline and I are concerned...
“Louisiana Leaves You in a Bayou State of Mind!”
Travel safe and we will see you out on the bayou.
John and Caroline 🍀
Points of Interest:
1. The Swamp Tour. We contacted Bayou Black Swamp Tours and so enjoyed the wildlife: alligators, nutria, and so many birds! The cruise through the Cypress trees was simply stunning.
2. Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or any location in the South, is a hoot. Finding a parade is easy to do as even the smallest towns have some kind of celebration and all of the listed in the Mardi Gras Magazine.
3. Enjoy a Beignet at Cafe Du Monde. John likes his “Moon Pie” and “King Cake” better, but Caroline preferred the square piece of dough that is fried and covered with powdered sugar. You have to try at least one beignet while in the New Orleans area.
4. Sample any of the Southern Foods while visiting the area: Po’Boys, Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Red Beans and Rice. We also sampled the Boudin (pronounced boo-dan) a type of sausage made of pork, rice, and spice. Very different.
5. Tour the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island in New Iberia, Louisiana. We enjoyed some of the food samples and did purchase the “Sweet and Spicy Tabasco.” Be sure to drive through the Jungle Gardens as it is a beautiful sanctuary for plants and wildlife.
6. New Orleans Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour: We have enjoyed this type of travel in other big cities and enjoy the history and information given on the tour. We only got off the bus once and walked the rest of our time. There are other options to explore while visiting New Orleans and the trolley or a private taxi would have been just as good and possibly less expensive. We enjoyed Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, and City Park, but there is the National WWII Museums, Mardi Gras World, and so many more options to explore and enjoy.
7. A cemetery tour: We rode through the St. Louis Cemetery #3, one of the 42 cemeteries in New Orleans. Pick one and take a walk through just to get an appreciation for the history and need for above ground graves. So interesting.
8. Hike: The Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is the largest swamp area in the country. We stopped at the visitors center just off I-10 for the short movie, a few brochures, and directions for a hike near the swamps.
9. Louisiana is known as “The Sportsman’s Paradise.” The number of outdoor options is endless including fishing, boating, kayaking, birding, and so much more.
10. The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge is the Tallest Capitol in the US! The Observation Deck on the 27th floor overlooks the city of Baton Rouge at a height of 450 feet. While we only rode by on the motorcycles, the views of the Capitol gardens and the Capitol lakes are said to be spectacular.
Scenic Motorcycle Routes:
1. Ride across the Pontchartrain Bridge: the longest bridge in the U.S. at just over 23 miles. We rode from Denham Springs to the quaint towns of Ponchatoula and Madisonville. The $5.00 toll to cross the bridge is well worth the view as it drops you just outside the downtown of New Orleans in Metairie. An experience we will not soon forget.
2. We chose to ride our motorbikes to New Iberia and Avery Island for that areas tour. We were pleasantly surprised to find some back roads of Southern Louisiana that included a stop in Plaquemine and a ferry ride to cross the Mississippi River to get us home.
3. Our final ride was a return to the Cajun Country and the Atchafalaya Basin known as the Bayou Teche Scenic Drive. We found a few gravel roads, a quiet lunch spot, and snapped a few drone photos to end our adventure here.
RV Location:
Baton Rouge KOA Holiday
7628 Vincent Road
Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726
1-800-562-5673
This KOA has mini-golf, pool table and game room, hot tub and pool, laundry room, and breakfast on the weekends. We did enjoy a few challenges to mini golf. The concrete pads were in okay shape, gravel roads. Easy in and out. This location worked well for our “Shamrock Rides” rather than being close to New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
Our latest YouTube and summary of our travels to this unique and beautiful area!
