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| We got to hold a juvenile alligator during our swamp tour. |
First let me set your mind at
ease, we were only hunting alligators with our eyes and our cameras (though we
did eat some alligator bisque while in New Orleans). While most activities in New Orleans center on
history, culture, and cuisine, the city provides a unique opportunity for
travelers to experience nature as well on a New Orleans swamp tour. The Louisiana swamps and bayous, just a short
drive from New Orleans, give visitors the chance to take a boat ride and see
swamp animals and plants in the great outdoors.
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| A canal through the Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve. |
We took our swamp and bayou tour
through the Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve. The park is named for Jean Lafitte, a pirate
in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800s.
Jean Lafitte Swamp & Airboat Tours is the only company in Louisiana that can guide guests
through the national park. We joined one
of their tours through Gray Line Tours New Orleans.
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| There are lots of gators on a New Orleans swamp tour. |
Tours travel through the
Louisiana swamp on special swamp boats, traveling through canals and
bayous. The canal, a straight waterway
built for oil drilling and logging, joins the Bayou Aux Carpes. Bayou means slow moving water, and the bayous
are natural waterways that bend and turn through the swamp, bordered by bald
cypress draped in cascading Spanish moss and the occasional mistletoe.
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| Turtles hanging out in the Louisiana swamp. |
The swamp is teaming with
wildlife. During a swamp tour, in
addition to alligators, you might encounter white-tailed deer, armadillos,
nutria, turtles (including snapping turtles which also appear on New Orleans
menus), blue herons, black vultures, and perhaps even a bald eagle. There are also 50 species of snakes in the
swamps, seven of which are venomous.
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| There are many animals in the Louisiana swamps, but let's face it, what you really want to see is alligators! |
During our swamp tour we saw one
armadillo, one great blue heron, one bald eagle, two black vultures, and a
number of turtles and alligators, and that was in December. While alligators are more active in the
summer when the water is warm, you can expect to see them all year round. As alligators are cold blooded, they are the
temperature of the water. Therefore, in
the winter when the water is cold, it’s just a little harder to find them as they
are buried in the banks, stationary amongst the foliage, but the expert guides
know where and how to find them. Around
April the alligators move to the banks to sun and in the summer they are
swimming around in the 85 degree water.
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| They're a little harder to spot in the winter, but you'll still find alligators. |
While traveling through the swamp
waters you’ll learn interesting facts about the flora and fauna of the swamps
and bayous. For instance, great blue
herons eat alligators when they’ve just hatched. Also, the Florida and Texas records for
longest alligators are both 14 feet three inches. The Louisiana record is supposedly 19 feet,
but it can’t be proven because the guy who caught it said it was too long to
bring in so he measured it with his rifle and left it behind.
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| The Louisiana swamps are covered in green, even in the middle of winter. |
Animals and plants aren’t the
only things to be seen during a Louisiana swamp tour. We passed a replica of a nutria trapper’s
cabin and another shack built along the bayou that has been used as a filming
set for movies and television shows.
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| The Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve has been featured in TV shows and films. |
Near the end of the tour everyone
on the boat got to hold a live alligator.
Alligators are protected so it is illegal to feed or handle the
alligators in the swamp or have them as pets, but the tour company has an
educational permit so they can keep small alligators for visitors to view and
handle. The alligator we held was a
small three-year-old with cold smooth skin.
It’s quite an experience to hold something so small that you know will
someday be huge, powerful, and kind of scary.
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| Canals and bayous wind through the Louisiana swamps. |
A trip to New Orleans just isn’t
quite complete without a tour through the swamps of Louisiana. Nothing says well-rounded vacation more than
a historic city, phenomenal food, killer drinks, scintillating music, and a side
of swampy alligator.
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| Come see me in the Louisiana swamp! |
Thank you to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New Orleans Hotel Collection
for hosting our trip to New Orleans and making this post possible. As always, all opinions are my own. For updates on what is going on in New
Orleans, follow the New Orleans CVB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
