Road trip around Louisiana

There is a lot of driving between those spots, all of which are good.

LA state parks have some nice cabins including poverty point, bogue Chitto, Fountainbleau, Tickfaw, etc. Chicot and Toledo Bend cabins are older unless they have been redone lately.

I'd pick an area and explore it using the park as a home base.

Port Hudson Battlefield

I love the drive to Cameron along the coast, south from New Iberia or Lafayette (Cameron from Avery Island is perfect). Ferry across to Holly Beach and then Sabine NWR. Lacassine NWR on the drive back. My preference is the back roads and the wild places. Louisiana is good for both.

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Road trip around Louisiana

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Excellent! I live thousands of miles away now, but when I come in once or twice to visit (old) relatives, I find we go on a lot of what I call "razzoos" around the state - often to places I never even considered going when I was a denizen.

Do you enjoy the drives themselves? Because sometimes, that's the point. But here's a few we've hit in recent years:

Mississippi River ferries: there's one at Belle Chasse and one at Point a La Hache. This is the kind of stuff you usually hear about in other states, but it's kind of cool that you can do it for $1 in LA.

Venice and Cocodrie - I think it's worth driving to both of those ends of the earth at least once. If you do Venice, I recommend driving south on 23 (west side), and then on the way back, cross on the ferry at Point a La Hache and proceed the rest of the way on 39.

Yscloskey/Shell Beach/ Fort Proctor. You'll have to take a boat/paddle board to actually see the fort, but it's really cool.

Chef Menteur Highway - cool drive through New Orleans East and then on through the swamp/marsh. There are several more forts here - including the famous one from True Detective. When you get all the way up by the MS state line, there are some REALLY good swamp tours there - way better than the ones in the Atchafalaya, IMO.

Speaking of Lake Fausse, it's fun to get on that levee road all the way south around Charenton. You can then take it all the way up to I-10 (Henderson). I never realized that was doable until a couple of years ago.

River Road from NOLA to BR - lots of cool stuff here. You can see the actual Bonnet Carre Spillway gates, plantations, Manressa, pipeline infrastructure and plants. I think it's definitely better on the east side.

Donaldsonville to Morgan City - Highway 70 is a fun ride south. The kids might think the levee gates/walls on the west side of 70 in the last 10 miles or so before Morgan City are cool. They look like they are from the Lord of the Rings or something.

Ferriday - Delta Music Museum

Oil City - it's on the nose, but MAN, there are a shitload of pumpjacks as far as the eye can see along a certain stretch of 1

Driskill Mountain - definitely worth doing at least once

Morganza Spillway - pretty cool to see how big it is

Old River Lock - this is on Highway 15, basically on the other side of the river from Angola

Poverty Point was actually pretty interesting

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The R. W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport has a collection of western art by F. Remington and C. M. Russell. They used to have, and I think they still do, a large azalea garden in the back but it's probably too early for that.

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The Norton Art Gallery azaleas are absolutely spectacular. We all used to take our kids and take Easter pictures with them. It's pretty busy, but beautiful.

Wonder how many speeding tickets you'll catch

You might need to invest in a fee oxygen tanks but

Driskill Mountain

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You might need to invest in a fee oxygen tanks but

Driskill Mountain

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Be prepared to bring water. Not because you need it on the "mountain" so much, but because there is NOTHING anywhere nearby.

I need to go make the "hike" again next time I go home. I haven't done it in about 45 years.

Can you still climb the Sailes Fire Tower? If you're hitting up Driskill Mt, you might as well. The Bonnie and Clyde Monument and the Museum in Gibsland aren't far either.

There is pretty much nothing in my home parish unless you like to hunt and fish.

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Isn't Hodges Gardens closed? I believe it is a state park now.

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It was for a while but is no longer listed on the LA State Park website. I think it must be closed for good. If anyone is in that area in the summertime with kids, a new water park/mini golf course around Zwolle had a soft opening last summer, Toledo Bend Family Adventure Park, and per their FB page are open on weekends for golf right now and supposed to be completely open this summer.