It has been a few days since we posted anything, so here goes with a little catching up: On Friday we once again were on the road headed to Chicot State Park (Shee-co) north of Lafayette and south of Alexandria. But let's go back to where we left you, Grand Isle State Park.
We've done our share of beach walking and bike riding. Every day, though, we encountered the workers with augers and avoided the places where they had just drilled up soil. It has been such a massive job to clean up a beach after an oil spill. It is difficult for us northerners to imagine the damage. What we witnessed was not the initial cleanup; that must have been very extensive in itself. This present effort has been to discover if any oil pockets have been trapped beneath the surface. The workers don't seem to want to give tourists like us bad news, so they impart little information on their findings.
There were always birds; hundreds of gulls, terns, and brown pelicans. The pelicans are so interesting to watch as they fly just above the water, rising only slightly to avoid the tops of the waves. When they fish the go higher and then position themselves so they are able to dive into the water. They don't fully submerge, just about half the body and sometimes even less. We watched them fish in both the gulf as well as in one of the smaller ponds near our camping area. Then there were the skimmers, delightful birds do just what their name implies...skim. They fly just over the water with their lower beak just skimming the top of the water. They will work one direction then back the other way. Gulls seem to like to hear their own voices. We saw flocks of them, maybe a 100 or more in a flock, all seemingly upset about something. Gulls in their own way are just fun, albeit noisy.
This would be an amazing beach, and is in some ways, but there is "stuff" that just doesn't get picked up by folks. Every time we walked or rode the beach we felt that we should be carrying a trash bag and picking up the stuff others left behind. We don't mean to disparage the state of Louisiana, but in general they have a very casual attitude toward trash; whether on a beach, roadside, or in their state parks. For the most part the sand was hard and great for biking until they started grooming it with equipment and then it was really softer and less enjoyable. One really needed to ride just at the edge of the breaking waves to stay on the most firm sand.
One detraction to this park was the constant droning of the helicopters going back and forth between the oil rigs off shore and the landing pads on the other side of the island from us. The other detraction for some (Marty, Paul and Dee in particular) are the oil rigs off shore. Yes, they are interesting to see, but not to live with.
Our island biking on the roads was pretty much with wind; at our backs, our sides, or into our faces. There is a bike lane most of the way the entire length of the island which is certainly nice.
Thursday was a day searching for fresh shrimp or crawdads. David and Marty rode all the way down the island to the bridge and then across it and came up only with information that tomorrow there would be some crawfish after 11:00, which was later than we could hang around. They did learn that there were fresh shrimp available back on the island so on the way back to the campground we all went to Blanchards and checked them out. After lunch we all rode back to Blanchards and got some large and medium shrimp for our dinner. Dinner was a feast! We had boiled and grilled shrimp and ate every single one of them. So good and so fresh.
Friday morning we packed up and headed to Chicot. On our way we went to a place called Elmer's Island, a barrier island just west of Grand Isle. We went there because we were told that there was good bird-watching at this place. We drove in on a little dirt road that had water on either side. David spotted a fin so we stopped to examine. The fin was that of a dolphin! We watched as it fished the channel in front of us for nearly 20 minutes. A local fisherman came over to talk to us when he was unable to get more fish saying that the dolphins drive the fish off (or eat them themselves)!
We arrived at Chicot State Park on Friday afternoon (pronounced she-co). This was after driving on some of the bumpiest old concrete state roads we've ever encountered anywhere in the US so far. The park is between Lafayette and Alexandria, near a small town named Ville Platte.
We've done our share of beach walking and bike riding. Every day, though, we encountered the workers with augers and avoided the places where they had just drilled up soil. It has been such a massive job to clean up a beach after an oil spill. It is difficult for us northerners to imagine the damage. What we witnessed was not the initial cleanup; that must have been very extensive in itself. This present effort has been to discover if any oil pockets have been trapped beneath the surface. The workers don't seem to want to give tourists like us bad news, so they impart little information on their findings.
There were always birds; hundreds of gulls, terns, and brown pelicans. The pelicans are so interesting to watch as they fly just above the water, rising only slightly to avoid the tops of the waves. When they fish the go higher and then position themselves so they are able to dive into the water. They don't fully submerge, just about half the body and sometimes even less. We watched them fish in both the gulf as well as in one of the smaller ponds near our camping area. Then there were the skimmers, delightful birds do just what their name implies...skim. They fly just over the water with their lower beak just skimming the top of the water. They will work one direction then back the other way. Gulls seem to like to hear their own voices. We saw flocks of them, maybe a 100 or more in a flock, all seemingly upset about something. Gulls in their own way are just fun, albeit noisy.
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| Brown pelican hitting the water. |
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| Two pelicans fishing together |
Our island biking on the roads was pretty much with wind; at our backs, our sides, or into our faces. There is a bike lane most of the way the entire length of the island which is certainly nice.
Thursday was a day searching for fresh shrimp or crawdads. David and Marty rode all the way down the island to the bridge and then across it and came up only with information that tomorrow there would be some crawfish after 11:00, which was later than we could hang around. They did learn that there were fresh shrimp available back on the island so on the way back to the campground we all went to Blanchards and checked them out. After lunch we all rode back to Blanchards and got some large and medium shrimp for our dinner. Dinner was a feast! We had boiled and grilled shrimp and ate every single one of them. So good and so fresh.
Friday morning we packed up and headed to Chicot. On our way we went to a place called Elmer's Island, a barrier island just west of Grand Isle. We went there because we were told that there was good bird-watching at this place. We drove in on a little dirt road that had water on either side. David spotted a fin so we stopped to examine. The fin was that of a dolphin! We watched as it fished the channel in front of us for nearly 20 minutes. A local fisherman came over to talk to us when he was unable to get more fish saying that the dolphins drive the fish off (or eat them themselves)!
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| Dolphin fishing at Elmer's Island |
We spent some time on Saturday biking down to the Louisiana State Arboretum which is within the park. We were concerned about rain so only did one trail. It is a wonderful spot, well maintained and very accessible.
The park surronds Chicot Lake and often one gets a view such at that below when you are driving around within the park.
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