Welcome to Louisiana: Black Bayou Lake

Well I’ve been in Louisiana for a couple months now, and I still don’t understand what a bayou is. To me, it just looks the same as a river. Except there are trees growing in it? And alligators. And snakes. And who knows what else that probably wants to kill you.

But really, other than slightly fearing for my life every time I go near the water, it really is kind of beautiful. Black Bayou Lake is a wildlife refuge just north of Monroe. There’s an educational center, walking trails, a boat ramp and canoes to rent. Coming from somewhere with hiking trails galore, I’ll take whatever kind of outdoorsy path I can get.

Now if you don’t like spiders, you may want to scroll past this next image (Eek!). I’ve never really minded bugs, but the ones here are no joke! I didn’t realize how lucky we were on the west coast to have relatively normal sized creepy crawlers. Yuck…

Sometimes I still look around and think to myself “This is where I live. Three blocks from a bayou, in Louisiana”. It definitely hasn’t sunk it yet, and I have a feeling it won’t for awhile. The good news is I’ve only seen one alligator (from a distance) and one cottonmouth snake, but you can bet I will not be getting in a canoe in that water. Just in case…

-Stephanie