The Wild Side of Louisiana

Before we went to Louisiana, I knew two things about Louisiana. One, my pockets were getting picked in New Orleans, and two, at least one child was getting eaten by an alligator.

Okay…maybe that’s an exaggeration, but we’ve all watched Swamp People. One of my kids was definitely going to end up as alligator crunch and munch.

New Orleans is going to end up being a post all on its own (Spoiler! Not a single pick pocket!) so let’s talk about those alligators, shall we?

We got a chance to visit a little bit of the wilder side of Louisiana while visiting Barataria Preserve. It was only March so we were assured that the bugs wouldn’t be too bad, the flowers were starting to bloom, and if we were quiet, we would definitely see wildlife.

Quiet might be pushing our abilities a bit, but we had cameras in hand and a backpack full of water so we were ready for anything.

We hit the Visitor’s Center first. Y’all. I was warned that this was a bit of an outpost and not to expect much from it. Whoever gave that recommendation must have a really high bar because we found the Visitor’s Center both interesting and informative with a very friendly ranger willing to walk around and talk to the kids about the various displays. It wasn’t the biggest educational display that we’ve seen, and it certainly didn’t have the largest gift shop, but it was far from disappointing. The girls had money burning in their pockets so they bought some binoculars and post cards before we set out on the boardwalks recommended by the ranger.

Two steps onto the boardwalk and we were already face to face with our first animal. A snake! We came across A LOT of snakes. And lizards. Maybe a few fishing lures. We heard birds more than we saw them although we did sneak a peek at one fishing.

What we did not see were any monstrous, meat craved, human eating alligators.

I mean, we saw alligators.

They were just more of the smaller, napping dinosaur variety.

Or maybe we just weren’t meaty enough.