Longleaf Vista Wilderness Area and Nearby Trails

Piney Woods Journal Submission 2017


You don't have to travel out of state or much beyond our state borders to find some unusual hiking, recreation, and outdoor adventures. Last year, I described the many attractions found in the Clark Creek and Tunica Hills Wilderness Areas north of St. Francisville. The bluffs and waterfalls at Clark Creek, in particular, make this trail unusual and memorable.

Another distinctive and special trail system can be found in the Kasatchie Hills Wildness Area hardly 30 miles southwest of Natchitoches. Often called the Little Grand Canyon of Louisiana, the Longleaf Vista Trail and surrounding area doesn't really have that much in common with the Grand Canyon. Yet this area certainly offers vistas and rugged terrain nothing like what one would expect to find in Louisiana. Kistache Hills is composed of sediments, as horizontal layers of silt, sand and clay, that were deposited long ago. Its narrow valleys were created by the force of streams that long eroded the softer sediments and left the more resistant sandstone at the tops of small mesas or buttes.

The Longleaf Vista Trail is only a mile and a half loop, but changes in elevation of several hundred feet and the many stone steps up and down several buttes make it at least a moderate workout for most people. Visitors can easily walk the short paved walkway to the stone gazebo and overview, but almost all visitors there with me on a recent Monday afternoon did not venture to the trail extending downward from the gazebo. On this trail are many interpretive markers explaining the surrounding vegetation and trees. These markers seem quite dated though, and in many cases the nearby trees being particularly described were no longer there to view. The markers do a better job of explaining the topography and geologic changes that produced this site.

Only a very short distance from the Longleaf Vista Trail is the trailhead for both the Backbone Trail (over seven miles in length) and the Caroline Dormon Trail (over 10 miles), which have portions open for trail biking. Some consider the Backbone Trail as the best hiking experience in Louisiana with its scenic overviews and encounter with Bayou Cypre at about its midpoint. You can get a good "feel" for the varying terrain of both the Longleaf Vista Trail and the Backbone Trail by viewing one of several YouTube videos available online. I recommend the videos produced in 2016 and 2017 for these two trails by Eric Heber. These certainly were accurate representations of many of my own experiences on two different trips and can give you a good preview of what to expect on such hikes. All of these trails obviously offer bird watching and wildflower viewing opportunities, depending on the particular season. The pine forests there might even offer a few a chance to spot a red-cockaded woodpecker. There are plenty of spots to camp also in this part of the Kisatchie National Forest, but campgrounds are usually primitive and some require driving on fairly narrow dirt or gravel roads.

To get to this destination, take I-49 and exit at LA Hwy 119. Heading south on LA 119 for slightly over five miles will take you to Forest Hwy 59, called the Longleaf National Scenic Byway. This 17-mile byway has a reduced speed limit and reminded me a bit of the solitude of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Turning right onto FH 59, you travel about three miles to reach the sign for the Longleaf Vista Area. A paved path leads from the parking lot to the gazebo and trail.

It's interesting reading comments from visitors to Longleaf Vista and the surrounding area. They seem surprised to have lived so long in the state and yet never have known at all about the beauty and uniqueness of this wilderness area.