Outdoor sights in The South
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Wildlife Gardens
Alligator lovers shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see babies to big ’uns up close at Wildlife Gardens, 20 miles northwest of Houma. The 30 acres of swamps, walking trails, an alligator farm, rescued animals and an old trapper’s cabin have come a long way since Betty Provost Eschette started the place with her late first husband in the 1980s. You can rent one of four very rustic cabins ($95 including breakfast) in a quieter part of the swamp. They all have screened porches, but bring the mosquito spray anyway.
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Grand Isle State Park
The end of the road down bayou way is 70 miles southeast of Houma, in Grand Isle. The windswept barrier-island town took quite the beating from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but many businesses have reopened and the Old Fishing Bridge has been restored. In addition to seafood shacks and fishing camps, boat charters are the big business here. Watching the waves lap ashore at Grand Isle State Park, it’s easy to imagine the power of mother nature. Rent canoes ($20 per day) to explore the inland canals or just watch as the brown pelicans, the state bird, dive for fish offshore.
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Sugarlands Visitor Center
This excellent visitor center features exhibits, a large bookstore, a free 20-minute film and a well-staffed information desk. During the summer, visitors are welcomed with frequent presentations by rangers, and ranger-led walks to nearby Cataract Falls leave from the patio area four times daily.
The exhibits provide an informative introduction to the incredible biodiversity of life that abounds in the park, with mounted specimens of the plants and animals you may encounter. Outside the center is a strange, cordoned-off piece of concrete called the 'First Amendment Expression Area'; it's often peopled by folks with strong opinions about park issues such as the future of…
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Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge
A little further than 7 miles northwest of St Francisville, you can stalk the largest North American bald cypress tree at Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge – so long as the Mississippi River is below 19-ft flood stage at Baton Rouge; the park is usually under water from January through June. This impressive tree stands 83ft tall with a circumference of 56ft, and may be about 1000 years old. It’s hard to tell exactly, because as bald cypress age, their core hollows out. That’s great for swampland creatures who need a new home, but not so helpful for scientists studying tree rings. ‘Knees’ of a cypress, the woody projections that jut up from the roots, usually rise a foot…
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Hot Springs Mountain Tower
On the top of Hot Springs Mountain, the 216ft tower has spectacular views of the surrounding mountains covered with dogwood, hickory, oak and pine – lovely in the spring and fall.
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