Swamp may be too negative of a term

Would a swamp by any other name smell as sweet? The bard may have been onto something. We have visited two separate Bayou’s, which are definitely not swamps, but definitely look similar to an inexperienced eye. As we spent more time in each, we began to learn to see the beauty contained in such a diverse ecosystem.

Both of these “swamps” were in Louisiana. One at the very furthest northern edge, Bartholomew Bayou and the other at the furthest corner of the southern region, Indian Bayou. We stayed at the State Parks closests to these, Chemin-A-Haut and Sam Houston Jones, respectively.

For those keeping track

We have recently remodeled our Wildwood X-Lite to fit our nomadic lifestyle better. You can read all about it here in our post about remodeling our trailer. The biggest question we got was about the coffee bean bag that was holding stuff in our shelving unit. Good news for us and everyone concerned. Works great! It is tacked in along the top with upholstery nails, I put two grommets in the bottom corners and a couple of brass J Hooks in the back of the shelf. Bungies hold the bottom to the shelving unit.

Two really bouncy road trips later and it has successfully fought the battle of the bulge. Our chaise lounge, however has taken it as a chance to explore the living space. We are going to have to figure that one out…

Chemin-A-Haut State Park

It is an important distinction between the word “Swamp” and the word “Bayou”. These were all Bayou’s and creek/rivers that fed, into or out of, these Bayou’s. Our first stay at Chemin-A Haut was awesome! Shaded, level lots with full hook ups. It was hot, triple digits, and the humidity didn’t help, but the trailer stay pretty cool due to all of the shade.

Just a wee little walk

We decided to get up early and walk the edges of the swamp (Bayou) along a trail that mirrored Chemin-A-Haut creek. Along the way we saw several birds, most interestingly a double breasted cormorant which dives and captures its prey underwater (sorry, no pictures, they were pretty fast to avoid us!) There was a complete highway for raccoons, more on them in a bit.

Then we also saw the track of something that may have been a small bear or possibly even a large panther down by the water. Take a look and tell me what you think. I wear size 13’s for comparison. It was quite dry, even down by the water; this was actually the only print like it down there. Lot’s of deer tracks though.

We also got the opportunity to see some trees after a controlled burned and some of the flowering plants that emerge after proper forest management!

Signs of life!

There was also wildlife along the trail. Sierra and I found two turtle shells, no claw or teeth marks – but no turtle! They were about 10 feet apart and maybe 30 feet from the water. I am not sure what killed them, but the bugs made certain the shells were cleaned out!

After this, we saw a good specimen of rat snake, curled around a tree stump very near the trail. These are very beneficial animals as they clear out rodents and other small snakes. I was suprised that this was the only snake we saw on this trip! Let me know if you can see the head in the picture on the right?!

Finally, swamp trees!

We took this path to see the ancient cypress trees that are frequently found in the bayou’s, swamps and creeks of the deep south. We managed to get several amazing pictures of these ancient giants. They grow “knees” that protrude from the water during wet seasons that help the roots function in a completely submerged environment.

Some of these Cypress are over 1,000 years old!

Smart swamp (bayou) wildlife

Ash went outside to empty the galley and took a trip around the back of the trailer at dusk. She stopped to check on our cactus (sigh) and it was fine. That was when she took a look left and saw a raccoon about 3 feet from her staring back! They both apparently thought this was a startling turn of events, as both screamed/screeched and backpedaled quickly.

We have a dog food container that touts as being raccoon and bear proof. So far in our travels, it has proven to be so. We have seen paw prints all over it from racoons, ants crawling all over it trying to find a way in and even saw it knocked about 10 feet away from the trailer (starting storing it about 20 feet from the trailer after that) while it was almost completely full. It holds about 50 lbs of dog food.

We were running on empty with the dog food and were going to pick some up on the next grocery run. It was sealed up out near the picnic table.

Finally, on our last night in Chemin-A-Haut, raccoons managed to open it. They ate the remaining scraps and stole our measuring cup!

Moving along to the next swamp!

Well, as the song says – we packed up the family and moved to Beverly – but in this case it was the Lake Charles area in Louisiana. It was a short 240 mile hop.

We were astonished at how different the ecosystems were. Bayou Bartholomew, which runs along Chemin-A-Haut, is the longest bayou in the world. It starts just south of Little Rock Arkansas in Pine Bluff and flows 359 miles to the Ouchita River in Sterlington Louisiana. It is completely made of fresh water, and does not interact with many lakes.

But then the bayou, swamps, lagoons and Lakes in the Lake Charles area directly interact with each other and the Gulf of Mexico. It has been a hot, dry summer and ocean water has intermixed farther north than is normal. The water is brackish and there have even been black drum fish (ocean going variety, there are fresh water drum in Louisiana too) caught as far north as Moss Bluff!

Sam Houston Jones State Park

This park suffered enormously from the back to back hurricanes in 2019. Ok, one was a hurricane and the other a tropical storm that dropped gallons of water on already damaged building, weakened tree roots and overburdened waterways.

The park has only recently opened it’s new camping area – not exactly to my taste, but it is nice and clean! Not enough shade (hurricane and new construction are to blame), and the actual campground is pretty small.

Swamp Hiking!

There are approximately 11 miles of trails. I say approximately because cyclists have measured them at 10 miles, the park has measured them at 14 miles and we have literally hiked every foot and came back with close to 12 miles.

Directly across the road from the camping area is a spot the park euphemistically refers to as a “lagoon”. This is definitely a swamp. We have seen 3 foot alligators, several species of snakes, frogs, lizards and fish. There were 8 to 9 foot alligators last year, but due to campers and day use hikers feeding them raw chickens, they became aggressive and had to be removed. The babies hatched and that is what we saw!

Riverwalk Trail

Sierra, Ash and took off early in the day on a marked trail of less than a mile – the River Walk trail. It was goregous. The people down here have a different version of risk assessment than I do. They have boat docks and launches, which makes sense due to the large part aquatic animals play in the cuisine here. There are also seating areas on the bank, and slides for children to slide into the alligator, alligator gar and snake infested water. Guess you just get used to what you live near.

Back to the trail

The trail gave us great close view of young cypress and cypress knees. Well, young for cypress, these are only a couple of hundred years old. Interesting wetland flora and lots of shade! The trail was much closer to 1.6 miles but luckily it popped out within 1,000 yards of the campground.

We saw several fish in the river. Those are difficult to photograph, but they were meal size. We saw what Louisiana calls a ‘grasshopper’. Readers, I have seen grasshoppers all over the US, some more challenging environments and Europe. I have seen nothing like this. I am calling him a combat grasshopper, fully armored. Take a look and let me know in the comments!

One hike down!

We decided to treat ourselves to a quick lunch/dinner in town. Since two of the three of us will not try any of the food down here and one of us (yours truly) has on several ocassions and not enjoyed it – we wimped out and got pizza from a local franchise. Pretty tasty.

There are a LOT and I mean a LOT of options down here to try crawfish in any form, pretty much any seafood or river food you can think of. If that’s something that interests you, get your grub on! There are also several casinos in the area, which we did not go into. I am allergic to losing money and Ash is allergic to stop losing money. Probably best we stay away.

Nice stroll through the swamp

We woke up nice and early, walked the dogs, fed the bottomless pit and got ready to go for another hike.

First we wanted to get a better look at the ‘lagoon’ . This area is reknown for birdwatching and I was secretly hoping for another alligator sighting. We walked over a couple of bridges that cross the ‘lagoon’ (ahem, SWAMP). There were a lot of huge, almost man-sized, birds. We were able to identify some of them as various heron’s and a few ducks, the rest – well – this may another place place that time forgot.

Then we walked the return walk to the truck along a small boardwalk and got up close look directly down into the river side. Stunning. Trees on the far bank, beautiful monster filled river with small boys and net catching crab for dinner. I got a picture of a few crabs away from the mighty fishermen and they are HUGE! Apologies for the grainy image. It was under several feet of water.

Pride goeth before the fall…

Ok, this one is all me. The last walk/hike was easy and very scenic. We took off on a hike that terminated in another hike. We could choose to bang a left/south and short.4 mile walk to the road and then another .75 mile walk back to the truck, OR bang a right and join the new trail that was marked at 3 miles. I must have woken up and chosen violence that morning. I took us right.

First, 3 miles was more like 4 miles. Second, I could not leave well enough alone and jumped onto a 3rd trail when it joined in (almost in sight of the road). A little over 7 miles later we popped out on the road. We were about a mile from the truck.

Endless hot water is great after a swamp hike!

Did I mentioned how awesome and clean the air conditioned bathrooms were? Fantastic. We all showered and rehydrated. Then I felt a little guilty for the march I had led my wife on – and thought it was funny I had made Sierra do it. I decided post-march bbq was in order.

There is still a burn ban in effect here. No charcoal, propane or campfires (even in the contained rings) are permitted. How is a man to get bbq? Road trip time!

BBQ, real smoked BBQ – no fish in sight

Ash did some research and found us a sweet place to go get BBQ, Paul’s Ribshack BBQ. Now you know I only hyperlink if it’s really good. I don’t get any advertising kickbacks on this post. We took off and drove over an old school drawbridge.

We looped around Lake Charles a few times, drove through an oilfield for some reason, pretty sure we were in Texas at one point and then ‘POOF’ we were there. Kind of a wierd trip. Regardless, the food was amazing! I got brisket, pulled pork and beef sausage links. The brisket was good, nice smoke ring, the sausage was juicy and just a hint of spicey, but the pulled pork was awesome. Juicy, tangy (but not the NC tangy) spicy and just a little sweet. Ash got a smoked cheesburger – you can literally see the smoke ring. Sierra, predictably, got nachos – but they had that pulled pork on them! Just take a look!

That’s a wrap

I think we may be done Swamp Hopping for now. We have other adventures ahead of us and excited to get out there! Check out our other adventures in the archives. Feel free to subscribe – no money is involved – you just get an email autosent every time I put ones of these together and publish it!