Creole Nature Trail Adventures

2018 Piney Woods Journal Submission


North and central Louisiana have more than their share of nature and recreational areas for residents seeking weekend getaways or vacations. Along the I-20 corridor are appealing state parks and wilderness areas. Cities such as Natchitoches and Alexandria are also great places to use as a base for short excursions to nearby attractions.

Even more diverse and unique outdoor adventures exist for those willing to make longer drives to the Ozarks or to extreme southwestern Louisiana. This month I'll try to make the case for why a trip to Lake Charles is well worth several days or a week's escape from routines, especially for outdoor lovers who aren’t that familiar with this part of the state.

There is much to see and do even in driving to the Lake Charles area from points north. Traveling southwest from Alexandria on US Hwy 165, you might want to spend a day or two in the Kinder area. Many visit there for gambling and/or golfing at the very visible casino and golf course just north of Kinder, but others come for canoeing and tubing adventures along the Ouiska (Whiskey) Chitto. The Ouiska Chitto is a beautiful spring-fed stream with white sand bars and beaches. There are several canoe rental places along LA Hwy 26 west of Oberlin that offer half-day or full-day canoe outings. Just west of Kinder itself on US Hwy 190 at LeBlanc are other businesses that feature river tubing as well as canoeing options.

Tourism officials in the Lake Charles area have marketed the many nature and outdoor alternatives in Calcasieu and Cameron Parish as the Creole Nature Trail and All-American Road. This is a 200-mile driving experience with stops at many walking trails, several huge wildlife refuges, and about eight Gulf Coast beaches. You are encouraged to start this Creole Nature Trail at its Adventure Point located just off I-10 exit 20 in Sulphur. This free attraction has hands-on displays of the flora and fauna found in the marshes and along the bayous of southwest Louisiana. The Adventure Point also allows visitors to sample some of the region’s Cajun food and Zydeco music and to pick up descriptive material on the many potential stopping places along the trail.

My own choices along this Creole Nature Trail recently were Sam Houston Jones State Park, Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, Cameron Parish National Wildlife Refuge, Peveto Woods Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary, and a couple of the Gulf beaches west of the town of Holly Beach. I started at Sam Houston Jones State Park, located just north of Lake Charles and named for Louisiana Governor Sam Jones who served in the early forties. This state park offers eight cabins, two deluxe lodges, two pavilions, many camping sites, boat rentals, five walking trails, and a disc golf course. Of its walking trails, I really liked the loop trail across from the larger pavilion that offers some nice cypress and tupelo vistas from a couple of elevated walkways.

                                     Cypress Swamp Trail at Sam Houston Jones Jones State Park
                                                     

Driving south from Sulphur on LA Hwy 27 and before you get to Holly Beach, you pass many miles of marshlands in the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. The over 125,000-acre refuge is managed to provide habitat for migratory waterfowl and other birds and to preserve and enhance these coastal marshes. Several potential stopping points lie along Hwy 27 through this refuge where you’ll encounter folks fishing and crabbing. One popular Sabine marshland destination is called the Wetland Walkway. Part of this 1.5 mile loop trail is over the marsh on a boardwalk, and you can get a much better view of the composition of the marsh below your feet. I’d particularly advise your using insect repellent if you walk this marshland trail, because there are times when certain pests can interfere with your enjoyment. Stinging horseflies were bothersome the afternoon that I walked this trail.

Wetland Walkway Trail and typha/cattails growing in the marsh at the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge

My next stop along the Creole Nature Trail was Peveto Woods Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary. It’s located next to Little Florida Beach and about 10 miles west of Holly Beach on LA Hwy 82. Peveto Woods is managed by the Baton Rouge Audubon Society and is a 40-acre site involving a chenier sanctuary. Coastal wooded areas were called cheniers by early French settlers. The word means oak place, so-called because the live oak was the dominant tree found there. Cheniers are ancient beach ridges, formed by wave action, offshore currents, and the influence of bayous or rivers. Such wooded areas, and surrounding beaches and marshes, offer a vital, first point of recovery for birds and butterflies in their long migratory routes across the Gulf. The beaches, marshes and cheniers in this area are prime locations for serious bird and butterfly watchers. Calcasieu and Cameron Parish have 89% of Louisiana’s total 456 recorded bird species, according to information posted at this sanctuary.

I’d recount other places along the Creole Nature Trail that also seem noteworthy, but I’d better wrap it up this time with one more quick overview of a prime wildlife viewing area. East of Holly Beach and Cameron and then north along LA Hwy 27 is the Cameron Parish National Wildlife Refuge. The Pintail Wildlife Drive and Boardwalk there is a three-mile trail through soil wetlands that provide a feeding and resting habitat for wintering waterfowl. Picking the right time in winter to drive this gravel trail might reward you with sights of a variety of geese, mallards, spoonbills, herons and other waterfowl.

                 Entrance to the Pintail Wildlife Drive at the Cameron Parish National Wildlife Refuge

Creole Nature Trail options also include the Rockefeller Refuge and the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, as well as Gulf fishing charters out of Cameron or Holly Beach. Fishing also in a variety of fresh and brackish water bayous or canals, and the waterfowl hunting camps there, are obvious reasons why many want to visit this part of the state.