I tend to look for festivals and interesting happenings when I want to travel. I had googled “festivals” and in the results came up this “American Festivals Project”. So we read through this website about these 33 different festivals around the country that these kids had gone to and written up for the National Geographic. The one that was closest and easiest seemed to be the Eunice, Louisiana Mardi Gras. They explained that it was a Cajun Mardi Gras. Different from New Orleans or South America Carnival Mardi Gras. So we proceeded to plan to go see it.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to research and figure out the best times and days to be there. (see why here) So we ended up missing the early weekend festivities and concerts. But we did get to the “Mardi Gras run” ; or, as it’s called the “Courir de Mardi Gras” in Cajun. We will be returning to this event next year to try to get more involved in a better taste of the whole week.

Our base of operations for the week was Chicot State Park in Louisiana. Because everything in the area is closed down for the Mardi Gras, I figured I better have reservations. So we were set to enjoy this unique Mardi Gras. The accommodations  included water and electric at the site. And the bathhouse with hot showers in several places around the campgrounds.  All for just $22 a night plus tax.

When we arrived at the state park fairly early in the day. They did let us go in to see if our site was empty yet. When we got there the prior users were still cleaning up breakfast and getting ready to leave. But they really had a lot to do to clean up and fold up their tent and load up their car. The site seemed not very hospitable for a travel trailer. As it was basically a short driveway up in the air with tent and picnic areas around the base of the elevated driveway. We returned to the office and asked if we could move to another site, and they gave us an incredibly better site 2 sites up (site C1029).

It was just one of many very lucky events of our days in this state park. The new site, site 29, was at the top of the hill and was pretty level and flat and large. There was no one anywhere camped near us. The only negative about the site is that the water spigot was about 40 feet away so we had to double up our water hose. But about 200 feet in front of us was a small bathroom facility, and the nicest shower house was just half way around the circle. Of course we had to drive to that in the early morning. But it was a nice relaxing warm shower in the morning.

The state park was the host/owner/staffing for the Louisiana State Arboretum. Not a huge developed instituion, but very educational just the same. Our initial stop at the Arboretum was inside the state park and it was a very new facility. The person in charge gave me a full tour of the facility and showed me their Educational collection of  live wildlife including baby alligators, box turtles, a number of snakes, and amphibians. The person explained to me that it was new, but the Arboretum had been part of the park for 70 years. She explained that there was another entrance outside the park that may be a little more interesting as it is so much older and has some very old large trees. So after checking out the new Arboretum we drove over to the old Arboretum.

Except for the age and condition of the main buildings, the Arboretum’s were remarkably alike. The original Arboretum had much more signage and instructions and information posted. It appeared to be well kept and still used for school groups and the such. Because it was outside the state park and nobody was there we did let Akela runaround and sniff a lot of things. The director had told me that following the trail down to the lake there would be some very large original cypress trees. But by this time it was getting late and I didn’t want to be down there in the dark. So we bypassed the large cypress trees and were awed by the large Water Oaks and Tulip Poplars.

The state park also had another campground at the northern end of the lake which we went up and looked at. It looked like it was under construction. It did seem to have electricity and water, but it was fairly flat and fairly flooded from recent rains.

There were probably as many people camped in the northern campground as there was in the southern campground where I was camped. However the people in the northern campground didn’t look as comfortable and all that mud and water. The northern campground did have a much nicer dump station. The southern campground had two dump stations. One in front of the other and the first one you drove up to was on a hill and was really hard to use as it was elevated.  But I watched a number of people wrestle with it when they could’ve just drove another 30 feet to the level one.

The park had a water park, I don’t remember seeing a swimming pool. But the South has all these water parks that are 10 or 12 poles with shower heads spraying water all over the place for kids to run around and play in. There were a lot of bicycle trails and roads that were kids riding bikes on. There was at least 2 boat launches and there were quite a few large boats. Bass fishing boats. So there must be some good fish and that little pond.

While we were touring around the campground, we met a couple with an Aliner and their grandson who must’ve been around 5. They had just bought the Aliner from a man’s widow who said he had bought it new in 1994. It was in the most perfect shape with air-conditioning and propane tanks and all in great working condition. The new owner did say he had a little trouble getting the furnace to work, but I suspected that might’ve been because it might have the original battery still. He has plans to modify it and said he would check out my channel. I was trying to get him to come to the Aliner rally and they seemed very interested. So we shall see them there if they make the trip.

I think that I would recommend the Chicot State Park in Louisiana as a great place to stay. They have some real unlevel and rough campsites, so check out my video here with a listing of the best campsites

Thanks For stopping By, We hope to see you out camping!

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast