Repeated history? Another wet Louisiana State Park stay
After a delayed launch and a wintry jaunt south, we had made it to Alabama and positioned ourselves to venture west. We had two weeks to catch up to our plans out in New Mexico and chose I-20 as our route. This would be new territory for us, and so I took to RV Trip Wizard to see our options of places to stop after the first leg of our westward journey. If we pushed past 300 miles, we could cross the Mississippi River and land in Louisiana. We hoped for full hookups because we hadn't dumped our waste tanks in almost a week and a half, but the RV parks along the route weren't catching my eye. What did catch my eye, however, was a state park in Delhi, only minutes from the interstate.
LA state parks are little gems. You can see in the above image that not only is this particular park rated highly, but the sites also have full hookups. This has been our experience with LA state parks in the past. Unfortunately, what has also been our experience is this:
Nicole Anderson
We highly recommend that you read that post, but to sum it up, we booked a beautiful site at Tickfaw State Park during our last trip out west. We loved that campground, but we ended up getting evacuated and moved to a different state park 40 miles east, Fairview-Riverside State Park. This campground was not our cup of tea. The sites were way more cramped than we'd expect from a state park, and even though this park wasn't officially flooded, there were puddles and mud everywhere. Communication between the staff at the two state parks was also a major issue, which made our eviction even more of a hassle.
We've all heard stories about floods in this state, because it's low-lying compared to many other parts of the country, and it's right on the Gulf. We just didn't know how hard reality would hit until we ventured there ourselves. Now we were back, wondering if we were crazy to even consider another state park here.
Weather guru Max Velocity was warning about a storm coming through the southern states that could bring heavy downpours. Given our positioning, we would encounter this storm one way or another. If we could head to Poverty Point, that would at least place us far enough west that we could shelter through the storm through the end of the week and then hit the road again over the weekend. We'd need some days to get work done anyway.
I like to think that I learned a thing or two from our last LA state park stay. Poverty Point Reservoir State Park is, as the name implies, on a reservoir. Typically, reservoirs are controlled, unlike natural bodies of water, so while floods can happen, reservoir floods aren't as much of a concern. The reservoir is also located fairly far from the campground. However, the campground is situated right on the Bayou Macon. I reserved us a site in the middle of the campground loop instead of the edge, to stay up and away from the Bayou. I also ensured that our site was long enough to fit our truck and trailer on the pavement. When we got transplanted to Fairview-Riverside, the staff stuck us in such a short site that our truck hung off the site pad and got horrendously muddy.
So with that, I booked us site 36, which was massively long, away from the Bayou, and near the loop's exit in case we needed to make a quick getaway. Our booking dates were from Jan 29-Feb 1, exactly 2 years after our arrival to Tickfaw State Park during the flood fiasco.
We chose a great campsite. It was really long as described, and situated a bit higher than some other parts of the campground. The storm wouldn't be moving in until the following day, but we already had tons of puddles. No warnings from staff that we needed to worry, though, so we just stayed vigilant.
The next day, we braced for impact. Our biggest warnings were for severe thunderstorms that could potentially produce an isolated tornado. After last year, I consider myself an honorary meteorologist, and so I confidently claimed that the weather patterns were not capable of producing a tornado. I was correct, but I would never let my arrogance get in the way of important preparations, so of course we took note of the nearest shelter that we could use in case the weather took a turn.
Throughout the day, we had a few big gusts of wind and a couple rumbles of thunder, but our biggest threat was definitely the rain. The downpours came right around sunset and were on and off all night. We couldn't see very well in the dark, so we could only wonder how bad the campground might flood overnight. Based on this incident, I was expecting some pretty wet ground the next morning.
The biggest problem with flooding is usually rising waters that happen days after a rainstorm, unless there is a flash flood. We never got word that this state park has flash flood issues, but we did see a couple local campers leave before the storm, which always puts us on alert. We also wonder if LA residents just see this as normal and therefore don't worry about it as much as we do. Full-time travel has in some ways made us more prudent because we've had our fair share of times we think everything is fine and then discover we were very, very wrong. We also couldn't help but apply our history with LA state parks. At Tickfaw, the staff warned us that we "might" need to evacuate, but they didn't actually tell us to leave until nightfall, which was inconvenient at best, dangerous at worst.
We woke up the next morning to worse puddles, but thankfully nothing too worrisome. The grass around our campsite was a pool of mush, but thank goodness for history lessons, because our extra-long site pad kept our vehicles elevated from the water and mud.
Puddles around our site and various places in the campground
Now that we felt safe for the remainder of our stay, we decided to get out for a bit and head to the Poverty Point National Monument about 20 minutes up the road. We knew absolutely nothing about this monument until we booked our campsite, but we read that it housed Native American ruins, including several mounds that the Natives built by hand. The location became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
The Visitor Center has a museum and a theater, which shows two short movies about the Native settlement that was established here about 3500 years ago. Visitors can take tours to the various earthen mounds, opting for a guided tram tour, self-guided auto tour, or self-guided hike. We chose the hike, which was an easy 2.9 miles.
Our travels have taken us to many Native American sites. We've camped among petroglyphs. We've seen well-known sites such as Crazy Horse and Montezuma's Castle. But we came away from Poverty Point mesmerized. We watched the movies before our hike and quickly learned that this settlement completely altered what historians and archeologists thought they knew about Native American society. These tribes were hunter-gatherers, who were known to be fully nomadic. So, to discover that they had established such an intricate society well before the agricultural era, painted a whole new picture of how these Natives lived.
The ruins show traces of circular ridges, which are believed to be where the Natives built their dwellings. The most spectacular feature, however, are the earthen mounds. Archaeologists have been able to excavate soil samples from these mounds and determine that the Natives built these several-hundred-foot-high mounds in the span of just a few months. The inhabitants would work tirelessly to cart soil up to the mounds in woven baskets that would only hold 50lb at a time. Considering a cubic foot of soil is 75-100lb, we can only imagine the tremendous feat. The site has 4 mounds in total, but one has been traced to a more recent construction. Of the 3 original mounds, mound A is the largest, standing at 72ft tall, 710ft long, and 660ft wide.
What these earthen mounds were used for remains somewhat of a mystery. They were believed to be for worship, ceremonies, and trade, but there is no evidence of the tribes living on the mounds or that the mounds were used for burials.
The hiking trail took us over to the ridges, where plastic posts now stand in place of the wood ones that the Natives used. We then crossed a muddy field that reminded us of the rainstorm we had just endured. The ground felt like a giant shag carpet that someone had spilled on, squishing uncomfortably under our feet. Then soon we came to a meaningful realization, that we certainly aren't unique in experiencing these Louisiana wetlands. The Natives used their bare hands to build a causeway in order to more easily traverse the wet ground. Clearly, avoiding the dampness was a priority for them, too.
We then hiked toward the mounds, getting to view the smaller ones from the ground. However, Mound A now has steps leading to an overlook at the top. It's quite the climb, but we were rewarded with views all the way to the Bayou Macon, plus an increased appreciation for the hardships that the tribes endured to create such a remarkable structure.
Soon, we wove in and out of the woods along the Bayou, and eventually back to the Visitor Center. We looked around the museum and got to see artifacts and tools from the era. This region doesn't have the types of stone used to make tools, and so the Natives imported stone from other parts of the country, even as far as Iowa – another mind-blowing historical discovery. We learned about the everyday lives of the tribes, which included hunting, fishing, cooking in earth ovens, creating art and pottery, and engaging in their large network of trade. It's this complex and sophisticated culture that has earned Poverty Point its World Heritage Site title. We truly can't believe that a place this extraordinary isn't on more travelers' radars.
We left Louisiana feeling good that we achieved some sort of redemption. It's hard to overlook constant worries about floods and severe weather, but we're glad that we had a successful LA state park stay overall. We enjoyed a large full hookup site in a lovely state park, we stayed safe from the storms, and we had a great adventure and learning experience that we probably would have never known about if it weren't for the RV life. That's really all we could have asked for. Now, with the storm behind us and more memories in the books, it was time to pick up our speed. Less than 800 miles to New Mexico! ...Unless we decide to take a detour.
Site 36, back-in, FHU
Long site pad, large "yard," picnic table and fire ring
Campground recommended? Yes
Site recommended? Yes
