The Louisiana Coast gets the most attention during disasters, filling our minds with images of hurricane devastation and oil-covered beaches. After the storms subside, media coverage fades, but resilient residents remain. They rebuild the landscape, inviting us to replace the images of devastation with fresh new pictures.
This open coastal landscape and rich outdoor opportunities can be appreciated year-round, with average January temperature in Southern Louisiana of 55 degrees, and a July average of 82. There are five great reasons to travel here.
1. Visit to Appreciate Nature
You’ll get an overview of the region’s natural history at the Barataria Preserve, maintained by the National Park Service. Visitors’ center exhibits interpret the culture of people who settled the delta and provide insight into how the Mississippi River built Louisiana’s wetlands and created this unique ecosystem. The 23,000 acres of the preserve includes bayous, swamps, marshes, natural levee forests, alligators, nutrias, and over 300 species of birds. The area is open for waterways exploration by canoe or kayak or for walking along the boardwalk and dirt trails. The Delta is so rich in wildlife, on one short nature walk I saw three tree frogs and two snakes-one devouring a frog-and several lizards, while insects and birds provided a steady background chorus.
Birding and fishing are year-round pursuits at Grand Isle State Park, where more than 280 species of fish can be found in the waters, supporting brown pelicans and other shorebirds that feast there. Park visitors can also swim in the warm Gulf waters, hike, boat, crab, or simply soak up the natural beauty.
2. Visit for the Fishing
In this land of bayous and marshes and Gulf waters, fishing is a natural-casting a line off dockside or boat side, fly fishing or spin casting, surf fishing for speckled trout, redfish, blackdrum, sheephead, flounder, crappie, and bass, or deep sea fishing for red snapper, grouper, black, yellow and blue fin tuna, amberjack, cobia, wahoo and marlin.
“In Plaquemines Parish, it’s not just fishing, it’s catching.” I experienced the truth of this motto with Cajun Fishing Adventures. Our guides took us to redfish hotspots along the nearby waterway, the captain steering the boat through channels and into the Mississippi like they were well-marked roadways. With my guide’s able assistance, I managed to hook several flounder and redfish, including many big keepers. I also snagged a stingray and even a small shark, which fortunately broke the line before reaching the boat.
Cajun Fishing Adventures also provided me with lodging and with their sumptuous cuisine, starring fresh local seafood prepared to reflect the Cajun influence. Even the hearty breakfast reflected Louisiana heritage.
3. Visit for Birding
Birding is phenomenal throughout the coast, with a diversity of habitats and lush feeding grounds, and especially on Grand Isle. I added roseate spoonbills, brown pelicans, and black skimmers to my Life List and marveled at the numerous shorebirds that called noisily from the rookery on Grand Isle.
The barrier island is a prime location for spring birding: as migratory birds wing their way north across the Gulf of Mexico, Grand Isle is for many the first rest stop. They spend several days renewing their energy, days when birders can spot a multitude of species. Birders can wander the local nature preserves and the town’s streets, where residents welcome birders and encourage tick marks on their birding Life Lists.
4. Visit to Eat
Shrimp, crab, and oysters are fresh here. With the careful testing done on seafood-as a reaction to the BP oil spill-the seafood is as clean as (if not cleaner than) seafood you’ll eat from other locations. Creole and Cajun are both at home here, arising in the standard fare like crawfish etouffe, jambalaya, and gumbo.
You’ll find creatively prepared fresh seafood prepared with local and gourmet flair at Restaurant de Familles in Jean LaFitte-catfish foster, redfish marcel, and Cajun spaghetti-all outstanding in freshness, preparation and presentation. The bayou outside the dining room’s 12-foot windows is surrounded by live oaks and populated with gators.
A friendly, down-to-earth atmosphere pervades Grand Isle, with simple, affordable, family-friendly motels and cabins (called “camps,” in Cajun speak), campgrounds, docks for boats, and piers for fishing. Area restaurants, like Sarah’s Diner and Starfish, epitomize the area’s rural feel, with Southern-style fried foods, seafood po-boy’s, and platters.
Woodland Plantation is an 1830 mansion on 50 naturally preserved acres beside the mighty Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish. You may recognize the restored mansion that houses Woodland’s B&B as the plantation that was featured on Southern Comfort labels. Rumor is that the mansion house has resident spirits, reportedly appearing in one of the guest rooms. The plantation’s restaurant and bar is housed in an old church and aptly named Spirits Hall. In addition to their signature drink, made with Southern Comfort, they serve traditional Louisiana Creole and Cajun cuisine, like Fish Pontchartrain or Pork Loin with Southern Comfort Sauce.
5. Visit to Lend Your Support
The effects of hurricanes and the BP oil spill have garnered media coverage and nationwide sympathy, but one ongoing disaster has gotten less attention: the wetlands that line the state’s Gulf edges are rapidly disappearing, as land gives way to water.
The geological history of Louisiana is like a photographic negative. Typically, waterways run from creeks to larger streams to rivers-capillaries to veins. The Mississippi as it has shaped Louisiana is the reverse. The grand old river flowed over the low-lying land, breaking its banks to form smaller “distributaries,” dropping sediment and feeding wetlands. In this way, nature over the eons built a system of land, bayous, and wetlands, rich in nutrients and supporting a distinctive collection of flora and fauna, with armadillos, nutria, shorebirds, crawfish, and alligators.
More recently, 10.3 square miles of wetlands are being displaced by open water annually-that’s one Saints Stadium football field of wetlands lost every 90 minutes. As wetlands disappear, their buffering effects are diminished and life that relies on that habitat is challenged. The loss is caused in large part by manmade levees and dams upriver, well-intentioned government actions that have halted the natural building caused by sediment deposit. The same structures that protect from flooding have stifled the distributary process.
Despite hurricanes, oil spills and disappearing wetlands, though, you won’t find devastation or long-faced, woe-is-me residents here along the Gulf of Mexico. You may spot remnants of the storms-a refrigerator perched 20 feet high in the branches of a tree, a submerged pick-up, or graves emptied of their contents-but the hard-working, resilient people who call this land home, some for generations, are overcoming the obstacles and are eager to share the beauty, recreation, and products of the Louisiana coast.
I spoke to one frequent visitor as he helped his two sons fish off a pier in Grand Isle. He described his eagerness to enjoy the area: “We come here a lot,” he said as he helped his five-year old take his latest catch off of the hook. “I come down with my buddies, and we fish for trout in the surf during the day while the kids play on the beach. Then it’s the kids’ turn to fish at night.
And he describes his eagerness to help. Rather than bringing what he needs from home, he explains, “We buy all our supplies once we get here. These people have been through so much, but they keep on going, so I help them out how I can. And the fishing’s great.”
The people of the Louisiana Coast, though concerned about the tragedies besetting their lands and livelihood, are not sitting idly as they call for help. They actively seek change while pursuing their livelihoods and providing opportunities for tourists to enjoy the area. We can help by spending tourism dollars there as well as by purchasing Louisiana seafood. It will be the most enjoyable volunteer work you’ll ever do!