Louisiana Gators
After spending the night in Lake Charles, we decided to head South and spend the day driving part of the Creole Nature Trail, then head up to Lafayette.
The trail heads through the heart of Creole country (and incidentally, through a town called Creole). In order to preserve the natural wetlands of this area, the state has, since the 50's, implemented an intricate system of land management that includes flooding tens of thousands of acres of formerly dry land. The flooding is controlled through a network of levees and flood gates. In addition to controlling water levels, the gates also control salinity levels which are used to help control foreign species in the area.
We stopped at an information station and it became obvious we had come in the off-season. There was nobody about other than a few construction workers and much of the station was closed off. The signs describing the life cycle of the native alligators explained that in the winter the gators are dormant, don’t feed, and usually only come up for air. Our hopes of viewing gators in the wild were dashed.
After leaving the information station we noticed a cut-off for a small nature loop. We took this (again, the only people around other than a park ranger that left after a few minutes). In addition to seeing a ton of waterfowl, we actually saw alligators! Since it was a nice warm day I guess they decided to come out and get some sun.
This area was hit particularly hard by hurricane Rita in 2005 and it still looks like the locals are in the early stages of rebuilding. We had just recently realized that there was still a lot of rebuilding left to do but nothing prepared us for what we saw. Even far inland there were huge debris piles on the side of the road that used to be mobile homes, garages, and even whole houses. The strange thing is that these piles weren't even on building lots, but had been blown/floated in from who knows where. As we got closer to community centers, the signs of rebuilding became evident. On the road we passed many mobile homes being hauled in, as well as truck loads of building materials.
It was strange to pull into a small town and see 20 or 30 identical mobile homes sitting 10 feet up on cinderblock legs. It was sad to see those 20 or 30 homes sitting amid 50 or 60 debris piles where rebuilding had not even begun. We didn't stop for photos; we'll probably get some later in the trip.
Heading back up towards Lafayette we were able to see many more alligators along the bar ditches and swamps. If this is the off-season, this area must really be infested with alligators. We also saw many fields that were flooded about a foot deep. These fields had a basket placed about every 500 square feet. It didn't take long for us to figure out this is where the mud bugs (crawfish) come from. The sheer number of these fields was incredible. I guess it's an easy way for families to make some cash and explains why you can buy crawfish locally for less than $3/pound.
Will do a separate post on food later. The food down here is incredible and alternates between pretty healthy (boiled shrimp and crawfish) to incredibly not healthy (pretty much everything else).
The trail heads through the heart of Creole country (and incidentally, through a town called Creole). In order to preserve the natural wetlands of this area, the state has, since the 50's, implemented an intricate system of land management that includes flooding tens of thousands of acres of formerly dry land. The flooding is controlled through a network of levees and flood gates. In addition to controlling water levels, the gates also control salinity levels which are used to help control foreign species in the area.
We stopped at an information station and it became obvious we had come in the off-season. There was nobody about other than a few construction workers and much of the station was closed off. The signs describing the life cycle of the native alligators explained that in the winter the gators are dormant, don’t feed, and usually only come up for air. Our hopes of viewing gators in the wild were dashed.
After leaving the information station we noticed a cut-off for a small nature loop. We took this (again, the only people around other than a park ranger that left after a few minutes). In addition to seeing a ton of waterfowl, we actually saw alligators! Since it was a nice warm day I guess they decided to come out and get some sun.
This area was hit particularly hard by hurricane Rita in 2005 and it still looks like the locals are in the early stages of rebuilding. We had just recently realized that there was still a lot of rebuilding left to do but nothing prepared us for what we saw. Even far inland there were huge debris piles on the side of the road that used to be mobile homes, garages, and even whole houses. The strange thing is that these piles weren't even on building lots, but had been blown/floated in from who knows where. As we got closer to community centers, the signs of rebuilding became evident. On the road we passed many mobile homes being hauled in, as well as truck loads of building materials.
It was strange to pull into a small town and see 20 or 30 identical mobile homes sitting 10 feet up on cinderblock legs. It was sad to see those 20 or 30 homes sitting amid 50 or 60 debris piles where rebuilding had not even begun. We didn't stop for photos; we'll probably get some later in the trip.
Heading back up towards Lafayette we were able to see many more alligators along the bar ditches and swamps. If this is the off-season, this area must really be infested with alligators. We also saw many fields that were flooded about a foot deep. These fields had a basket placed about every 500 square feet. It didn't take long for us to figure out this is where the mud bugs (crawfish) come from. The sheer number of these fields was incredible. I guess it's an easy way for families to make some cash and explains why you can buy crawfish locally for less than $3/pound.
Will do a separate post on food later. The food down here is incredible and alternates between pretty healthy (boiled shrimp and crawfish) to incredibly not healthy (pretty much everything else).
posted by John at
9:22 AM
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